


Comfort Food

by Unda



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:40:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 77,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2795075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda





	1. Chapter 1

Zoro stands stock still in the street with the phone pressed to his ear, he understands what he's being told, mentally he does but... he can't wrap the rest of him around the idea.

"I- yes. Thanks for telling me." He says numbly and hangs up.

He needs to sit down before his legs give up under him, he stumbles right across the street into some kind of café and falls into one of the seats at the bar. His hands are in his hair and trembling, the flowers that he'd got her are gone, he probably dropped them outside. It doesn't matter now, he supposes. Kuina is really gone for good, he'd been hoping for so long that she'd wake up and- he chokes back the sound in his throat but some of it slides out between clenched teeth.

He's staring down at the counter hard enough to bore holes into it when a drink and a large piece of pie are slid under his face. His head snaps up, he'd not even ordered anything.

"It's good, you should eat and drink." The blonde waiter tells him softly. Words die in Zoro's throat so he just nods stiffly. His hands wrap around the white mug before him and he mechanically brings it to his mouth, destroying the heart in cocoa on the top of it. It's something warm and chocolaty, it slides down his throat, coating his tongue in some wonderful flavour. He swallows and the world seems to stop spinning so hard, the waiter smiles at him.

"In my experience, there are two kinds of problems. Ones you can't do anything about no matter what, there's no point worrying about those, it's hopeless. And then there's ones that you can do something about, you just need to work out what it is for that and do it, not worry about it. Either way, worrying is pointless, so don't feel so bad." The blonde says sagely.

"I don't… I don't think that applies here." He says clumsily as the image of Kuina's still chest with no breath of life in it flashes behind his eyes. She's gone, she's really really gone. Some part inside of him hurts so badly that he's not sure it'll ever stop, he appreciates this guy's attempts to help but this will never feel okay.

"Sure it does, that's why it's Zen fucking wisdom I'm dishing out here. Hey, I guarantee that when you finish your drink and that pie and walk out that door, you won't feel as bad as you do now." The guy says confidently, his hands on his slender hips.

"You don't know what I'm going through." Zoro challenges, part of him hating how whiny and self-absorbed that sounds.

"Buddy, you don't know my pie." The blonde grins cockily at him and saunters off in his black suit out into the back of the café.

Zoro shakes his head in disbelief. What the hell is that guy on? Still, Kuina would have liked that kind of "Zen fucking wisdom", it would have made her laugh. He's never stopped thinking about her, about what she would have said if she'd been around, or what she would have thought of someone or something. He's spent so much of his time these last five years with a ghost it's not all that dissimilar to be thinking about her now that she actually is dead.

He sighs and pokes at the pie with his fork, he should eat, even though he doesn't feel like eating. He knows what he gets like when he gets down though, his appetite tanks and he's gone days without eating before simply because he didn't feel like it and forgot. When Kuina was first hospitalised he lost nearly a stone.

The crust of the pie is flaky and buttery, it melts in his mouth belying the bittersweet berry filling inside. He's not one for real sweet stuff so the tartness of the fruit is pleasing, it matches surprisingly well with the hot chocolate drink that he's been given too.

He eats and thinks and through it all he misses Kuina, he'd do anything to take her place, she was the one with real talent- not him. It wasn't fair.

"Life isn't fair Zoro." Her exasperated voice runs through his mind. He tangles a hand in his hair, why couldn't she just be here with him telling him that? Why, why, why?

By the time he finishes his pie and his drink he doesn't feel a whole lot better, but less like he's going to cry or crumple up into a ball. Instead he just feels kind of hollow inside, like someone's scooped his insides out with an ice cream scoop.

A muffled argument out back catches his attention, as well as the blonde waiter's who pauses to listen in the middle of wiping down one of the otherwise entirely empty tables that fill the place. Actually, there's no one else in here but him and the blonde.

"Way to show up to work on time Patty." The waiter mutters to himself, dropping the cloth in the sink as he passes.

"Hey, what do I owe you?" Zoro says, catching the blonde's attention.

The man seems to regard him for a moment before strolling over. The guy has to be about Zoro's age, though they're nothing alike, this guy is slender and fancy looking with his suit and his perfect golden hair swept dramatically over half of his face.

"You don't owe me a thing." He says simply, his hands stuffed casually in his pockets.

"For the pie and the drink." Zoro says, as if that'll clarify things.

"You didn't eat or drink anything." The blonde says with a snort, picking up Zoro's crockery and dropping it into the bin behind the bar with a loud crash.

"What are you- hey, look, just take the money." Zoro frowns, pulling a twenty out of his wallet and trying to hand it to the guy. The waiter just dodges it though.

"Take it!" Zoro snaps, if it's pity this guy is giving him by feeding him for free, he doesn't want it!

"Sir, stop waving money at me, it's insulting. I'm going to have to ask you to leave!" The blonde says loudly, loudly enough for some ugly guy to stick his head out of the back.

"Sanji! Stop yelling!" The guy shouts himself as he comes out from the back room, oblivious to the contradiction in his own words.

"Patty, this crazy guy has just come in off the street shouting crazy shit and waving money in my face. I'm throwing him out!" he declares.

"HEY! I'm just trying to pay for my goddamn meal!" Zoro argues, disliking being called crazy by some clearly whacko waiter. He glances at the countertop though and realises that with no plate or mug it looks like he hasn't eaten anything at all and like the blonde's story is true.

As one the waiter and this new guy haul him out of the little café and out into the street, ignoring his angry shouted protests at being manhandled.

"And stay out, you crazy bastard!" the blonde shouts at him and moves to shut the door, Zoro gets his shoulder in it first though.

"You're the crazy one!" Zoro snarls, trying to shove his money through the door.

"You're pretty angry huh?" The blonde remarks casually as he shoves back on the door, ducking the money again.

"Of course I am!" He yells, contemplating just flinging the money in the café and legging it.

"You're not sad though, are you?" The blonde says quietly, with smugness radiating from him.

Zoro pauses. He's not sad, he'd not been thinking of Kuina that entire time, he's just… ticked off right now. The dumbass blonde had actually distracted him from his pain for a few moments.

Sensing an opportunity the blonde slams the door shut on him and locks it before pulling a smartass grin and sticking his tongue out at Zoro through the window. A smile flickers on the edge of Zoro's mouth before drying up after a second but still… the scrawny blonde had won.

Reluctantly Zoro shoves the money back in his pocket and looks around outside. His outburst attracted a fair few stares from passers-by, but he doesn't care about that. Petals swirl around his feet and he spots the white bouquet he dropped a little further up the road. He doesn't go to get it, Kuina isn't in a state to appreciate it now, but it does give him an idea of where he can crash for tonight. He turns on his heel away from the strange man in the café and heads to Robin's house.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanji checks his watch, it's six AM and the Baratie is open for business. They're open pretty much every hour god sends right now, Sanji does barely anything but work and sleep. The hours are destroying him and if it wasn't for one thing he's not sure that he could make it through.

The guy that he fed for free, the tall green haired gorgeous one, he came back.

At first Sanji thought that all his Christmases had come at once, he'd desperately hoped that gorgeous (as he'd taken to calling him in his head before he knew his name) would come back and he had and all dressed up in a pretty little package too. He had walked into the Baratie in the middle of the day when there were no customers, all covered up in a sleek black suit with a black tie and a crisp white shirt. He looked like porn and Hugo Boss suit adverts smashed together into perfection.

He'd wanted nothing more than to drag the guy over by his tie and unwrap him. Until he had clocked the man's sombre expression and then the colour scheme of the suit, greys and blacks, and realised that he wasn't dressed up for him but for a funeral. It turned out that his childhood friend had been in a coma for years and then she'd died suddenly on the day Sanji had first met him. It had devastated him, the poor guy had come into the Baratie just to sit down and think, only for Sanji to open his big mouth and jerk him around.

He'd realised just how much he'd screwed up and had half expected the guy to punch him out. But… he'd just sat down and let Sanji feed him again. He provided some context to his last visit, which only served to make Sanji feel like more of an ass than he did already, the guy had just literally been told about his friend before he met Sanji for the first time. And he had… well, he'd done what he always did whenever he didn't really know what to say, he'd run his mouth. He'd got into an argument with this guy only for him to suddenly stop midway through and laugh. Zoro (he'd introduced himself by then) had just looked up at him with his dark eyes and said:

"The only time I felt any better that day was when I ran into you and you were such a complete asshole that I forgot about her for a minute. Thanks."

The only thing he'd been able to come up with to that at the time was. "You're welcome, dumbass."

Zoro came by every day now, despite Sanji's sudden lack of tact and social skills around him. But that wasn't the best part of Sanji's day, this is. He leans against the window under the pretence of cleaning them and waits, watching. He's on the second window pane when Zoro rounds the corner up the road and runs towards the Baratie. He's gorgeous, shirtless and drenched in sweat, running the same route he does every morning. Sanji pauses in his window cleaning and subtly admires the view. The man is fit, fast and strong enough to send all of the blood in Sanji's body rushing to his groin. Zoro flicks a glance in his direction and grins at him, Sanji scrambles enough brain cells to grin back in a non-lecherous way before the other man passes him completely.

Sanji leans his head against the incredibly clean window and lets out a calming breath as he resists the temptation to flick the sign on the door to closed and sneak into the bathroom and jerk off to that image. He's not been able to resist every single day, some days he breaks down and just has to shut up shop for a few minutes. One time Zoro stopped at the Baratie mid run for a drink of water and ended up pouring as much of it over his shirtless torso as he did drinking it. That had not been good for Sanji's blood pressure. Usually Sanji is into women, he really is, it's very rare that a man catches his eye. But… well… when a guy who pretty much walks right out of Sanji's spank bank and into real life comes up to him, he can't resist.

He pushes himself away from the window and gets on with the rest of his morning. He could have dealt with this attraction if it had just been physical but it's more than that. Sanji knows that he can be abrasive and rude at times, especially to men. That's why he doesn't have any real friends outside of work, he has people he knows but no friends. But Zoro doesn't mind his acidic tongue and his insults, in fact he seeks them out. Zoro baits Sanji and gives as good as he gets. Zoro had said himself that it was that quality in Sanji that made him come back. So Sanji has found himself torn between wanting to keep the guy up all night talking to him, getting to know him even more and wanting the guy to keep him up all night having sex. He had it bad.

Within twenty minutes Zoro saunters back into the Baratie in a tight white shirt and black jeans, Sanji tries not to drool.

"You look pleased with yourself." He says, because really it sounds a lot better than 'please let me blow you'.

"I am. I took half a minute off of my time." Zoro grins and hops onto his barstool, the same one he'd picked on the first day.

"Shall I call the mayor to arrange the parade in your honour?" Sanji snorts and slides Zoro over a bright green smoothie. Zoro never orders anything, he just trusts Sanji to make him something awesome, another reason that Sanji loves- uh… likes him.

"Go play in traffic asshole." Zoro spits back and drinks. Sanji notes the pleased quirk of Zoro's lips and the set of his shoulders as he drinks and notes it down in his mind. He's starting to get a proper map in his head of what Zoro does and doesn't like, he's not a fan of sweet things, and the tart kiwi, grapefruit and mango smoothie seems to please him.

"Bite me." He says back instead.

"So, are you ever not here?" Zoro asks, leaning back on his chair and chasing a stray drop of smoothie with his tongue and completely derailing Sanji's brain.

"Huh?" he says intelligently and leans against the counter so that Zoro won't see anything he's not really supposed to on him.

"This place…" Zoro says, gesturing to the building, "are you ever not in it?"

"Of course I am, idiot. They don't just switch me off and wheel me into a cupboard when the lights go off. I'm not a robot." He shoots back irritably.

"Well that really put my mind at ease, idiot." Zoro snorts and sips some more of his drink.

"Not much mind to work with, so it wasn't hard." He shoots back.

"I was asking when the last time you had a day off was." Zoro sighs and flips him off. Sanji frowns, he can't actually think when that was, but it doesn't help that part of his brain is freaking out in the hope that this is some preamble to Zoro asking him on a date next time he has a day off. His stomach is getting in knots just thinking about it.

"I had an afternoon off last Thursday." He muses as he fiddles with a new roll of paper for the till.

"No, a whole time of at least 24 hours that you didn't work. See, today is Sunday, so I'm not at work, get it?" The green haired bastard says mockingly.

"Shut up! I think I had a whole day off at the beginning of last month, I managed to slice my thumb when Carne shoved into me, so I let it heal for a day. Why do you care anyway?" He demands irritably. Zoro just stares at him for a few long moments and Sanji swears that he actually sees the other man's eye twitching.

"That's not a day off, that's a sick day. And seriously, the beginning of last month?!" Zoro hisses angrily. Sanji shrugs, what does Zoro want him to do about it?

"What's in this anyway?" The man sighs, running a hand through his hair and seemingly dropping the subject as he runs a finger up and down through to condensation on the half full smoothie glass.

"Banana, kiwi, lime- where are you going?" he asks perplexed. Halfway through his sentence Zoro had leapt up out of his chair and started striding across the restaurant with the sort of fierce determination that Sanji really didn't like seeing on his face. Zoro doesn't answer him but instead shoves the door to the kitchen open.

"Hey, you! You own this place right?" Zoro yells in there before Sanji can rush inside and kick Zoro's trap shut. He gets in there fast enough to run right into Zoro's back though, he peeks around the other man's broad shoulders and sees Zeff looking at the green head suspiciously.

"Yeah, what are you doing back here?" the chef questions with an irate twitch of his moustache.

"I told your incompetent barista here not to give me kiwi, I'm allergic, and he did it anyway! Now I'm gonna have to go to the hospital." Zoro declares in what is blatantly an outrageous lie, however that's not the most egregious statement.

"BARISTA?! I'm a chef you shitty insect! I'll kill you! I'll shove my foot so far up your ass that-" he screeches in unbridled rage.

"SANJI." Zeff snaps angrily, cutting Sanji's rant short.

Sanji snaps his jaw shut and glares at Zoro, his teeth grinding in anger and frustration. What the hell was the other man even doing?! That bastard!

"I swear that he fell asleep earlier too, when is the last time you gave this idiot the day off anyway? He looks so sleep deprived he could be a corpse." The other man lies even further.

"Thanks. You're no prize either." He grouses, even if it's not strictly speaking true.

"Look, Zeff. This bastard ain't allergic to shit, he's lying." He insists, turning to his old man with imploring eyes. He's never made a mistake like that at all, and if he had Zoro would be on his way to the hospital, not out here bitching to Zeff about it.

"Haven't you got a hospital to go to? Get outta my kitchen." The old man growls at Zoro who begrudgingly nods and walks out. Sanji pouts a little despite himself, even if Zoro had been annoying he's always sad when the other man goes. Although he's not exactly sad to see Zoro leaving the guy is pretty pleasant to watch from behind too.

"When was your last day off anyway?" Zeff asks, folding his arms and leaning back against the counter as he looks Sanji up and down in an assessing way.

Sanji glowers, he sees now what Zoro was trying to achieve. He disagrees with the other man though, his heart might be in the right place but he doesn't understand the circumstances. Still, he can't lie to Zeff, not if he wants to avoid being kicked in the teeth anyway.

"The beginning of last month, when I cut myself up, remember?" He answers in grumbled resignation as he runs this thumb over the still visible white line on his hand where the cut healed.

"Get out." Zeff says firmly, shocking Sanji.

"What?! You don't seriously believe that-" he splutters in complete disbelief.

"You've been working too much, Patty and Carne will cover your shifts. If I see you in here before Wednesday I'll rearrange your face. Now get out." Zeff states flatly.

"I'm not working too much you old geezer, and we can't afford- ah!" He yelps as Zeff's peg leg swings through the air that his head was just occupying moments ago.

"Out! No one wants your cooking anyway!" The old guy roars, swinging for him again. This time it's not so much of a warning shot and Sanji only just manages to dodge it and still feels the kick just sail by his skin.

"Okay, okay! I'm going!" He yelps and retreats. He grabs his coat and dashes out into the front again. Zoro is already gone, his glass is empty and there's a ten on the counter. He considers taking it and chasing the marimo down and making him take it back- it's way too much, but Zeff runs him out of the building before he gets the chance. He and Zoro have this thing, it's sort of a game, though a lot of what they do is a game. There's the game of trying to insult each other as much as possible, there's the game that he has where he tries to guess what Zoro does for a job since Zoro won't tell him, and there's this thing where Sanji refuses to let Zoro pay for his food and Zoro sometimes leaves far more money than he should behind and runs off. Sanji figures the money actually works out to be slightly in their favour and he doubts that's by accident on Zoro's part.

As the Baratie's door slams behind him he glances around the street hopelessly, he doesn't know what to do with himself now but he really wishes that Zoro was here. He doesn't expect to see Zoro still close by but there he is, just ten feet down the road.

"Thanks a lot asshole!" He shouts as he nears the other man. Zoro looks up in surprise and Sanji sees that he's on his phone, Sanji quiets down but still glares at the other man.

"Seriously, you- but I need your car today to help me move... Yeah... I guess. It's just... It was my last day off for a while, so now it's going to have to be next week then. Fine, no, it's not your fault man, if Iceburg needs you then I get it. Yeah, bye." Zoro grumbles and hangs up.

"So much for that plan." Zoro mutters to himself as he hangs up.

"What's gone wrong?" Sanji asks curiously, his rage pushed aside by nosiness.

"I was supposed to be moving into my new place, I've been sleeping on sofas lately and I really need to get my own place. Franky was supposed to be helping me and lending his car, I can't drive so he was gonna drive me, but he had to pull out. Now I can't move until next Saturday." Zoro sighs and shoves his phone back into his leather jacket.

"I have a car, and seeing as SOMEONE just got me kicked out of work..." He says, his words trailing off. They had caught him by surprise, the offer tumbling out of his mouth before he had time to think about it. Crap, this is weird isn't it? Zoro is going to think he's a weirdo, Sanji might secretly adore him but he's still a customer.

"Wait, he didn't just fire you or something did he?!" Zoro balks in horror.

"No, he just told me not to come back until Wednesday, which isn't any good either. Though if he had fired me it'd be all your fault, you meddling grass head!" He snaps, kicking the man in the leg.

"Hey, that's great!" Zoro beams at him.

"No it's not, and if you say it is again I'll run you over with my car instead of helping you." He threatens.

"You really don't have to help me you know, I'm sure you've got better things to do on a rare day off than help me move." Zoro says quietly. Sanji considers this, he doesn't know if Zoro is trying to brush him off and be polite about it or what, he doesn't want to stick around to find out either.

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't feel like it, come along or don't, but I'm going." He shrugs casually and turns to walk off. There's a few seconds where he doesn't hear Zoro's voice or hear his footsteps, Sanji allows himself an internal pang of disappointment, so much for that then.

"Hey, wait! If you're really sure..." Zoro calls out, catching up to him in a few quick strides. Sanji grins and turns the corner to small staff car park around the back of the Baratie with Zoro following him.

They reach Sanji's gorgeous blue car, it's a vintage camero in an amazing powder blue. It was beat up when he got it, which was how he got it for so cheap, he's spent loads of time and money on it to get it to this level. Though lately not so much.

"This is yours?" Zoro asks with raised eyebrows as he lays eyes on the car.

"Yep, my baby. Took her from nothing to this." He beams, stroking his hand along her side as he opens the door.

"You and Franky would get on like a house on fire." Zoro smiles to himself. Sanji's ears perk up in interest, Zoro's usually quite talkative if Sanji can get him going, but he's never spoken about his friends before today.

"Oh?" He asks with interest as he slides inside and buckles his seatbelt up.

"He's an engineer, he loves stuff like this, cars especially." Zoro says opening the door.

"I really hope you're not a serial killer." Zoro adds thoughtfully as he shuts the door from inside the car.

"Darn, you found me out. I'll help you move before I kill you though. So where to?" Sanji says flatly as he turns his car on, her engine purrs gorgeously, sending a shiver down his spine as always.

"Uh… let's go to Robin's first to pick my stuff up from there. It's on Ohara Avenue." Zoro says, leaning back in the seat and stretching alluringly, Sanji keeps his eyes on the road as they pull out of the car park.

"That part of town is pretty deserted, wasn't there a huge fire there like ten years ago? I thought no one lived there." He says. He remembers reading about it in the papers and seeing all of the burnt out buildings whenever he went that way.

"Yeah, don't… don't mention that if you see Robin." The marimo says distantly.

Sanji shrugs and drives off in the right direction, it's not far enough really for the silence between them to become awkward, it's just that he's hyper aware of the fact that the leading star of his latest jerk-off fantasies is in his car with him. He tries to keep his mind off of it, after all he doesn't have a convenient counter to hide his hard on behind now. Still, it takes a lot of concentration on his part to not visualise just pulling over and dragging Zoro into the back of the camero and getting all hot and sweaty with him. He's never been able to bring himself to have sex in the back of his precious car but for Zoro he would definitely make an exception. Goddamnit, he needs to think of something else!

"It's this side of the road, just… a little further I think. Unless we've already passed it…" Zoro says thoughtfully, looking out of the window.

"Those are pretty different." He shoots back, grateful for his smart mouth at times.

"Shut- oh, there. Pull over!" Zoro exclaims, pointing at a building. Sanji obligingly pulls over and Zoro hops out of the camero and shuts the door.

"I've just got a suitcase or two worth of things here, the rest of it is in storage downtown. I figured starting here would be better." Zoro says as he holds the door to the building open for Sanji.

"You seem to be pretty practiced at this, do you move a lot or something?" he remarks. Not that Zoro does seem especially practiced at this, it's just a nice vaguely complimentary thing to say and it makes him seem more insightful than he really is. He realises with a start that he's trying to talk to Zoro the same way that he talks to women, he's trying to make Zoro feel like he knows lots about him already, to build up a relationship quickly. He wants to kick himself because he likes getting to know Zoro, not just pretending like he does.

"If I was practiced I wouldn't be having to drag innocent bystanders into helping would I? I should be practiced though, I move more than I'd like. It's usually pretty last minute though. I've had to abandon a lot of stuff over the last year or two, I try to keep most stuff that I don't want to lose in storage. The rest is just in suitcases like I said." The moss head says casually as he steps into the lift with Sanji in tow.

"Now who sounds like a serial killer?" Sanji shoots back, making the marimo laugh brightly.

"Hm, I don't think Robin will be home, she's usually left for the university by now. But she's on flexitime so some days she's not." Zoro remarks as the exit the lift and Zoro fishes his keys out of his pocket and leans against the door.

She? Oh. Sanji had… well… he'd sort of assumed that Robin was a guy friend who owned the place that Zoro was couch surfing at. But Robin as a girl could well be Zoro's girlfriend. Damnit, she probably was. But… but if she was why was Zoro moving out? And why had he mentioned sleeping on people's sofas? Perhaps his girlfriend didn't feel ready to have him really move in yet, though she'd have to be stupid not to want to see Zoro around all the time.

"So, Robin is… your girlfriend or something?" Sanji asks, trying to force his voice into being as casual as possible instead of a tone that screams 'oh god, please say no!' instead.

"AHAHAHA! Seriously? What, no. She's- wait." Zoro pauses in his laughing and peers suspiciously around the very nice looking apartment that he's just opened the door to.

"Robin? Robin are you home?" He calls out, stepping into the room. He pauses and listens, the flat sounds quiet and empty with no sign of anyone being home.

"Robin?" He calls a little louder, to no response. Apparently satisfied with this Zoro turns back to him and speaks again.

"Yeah, no. Robin and I are definitely not dating, for several huge reasons." Zoro explains, shutting the door behind Sanji and leading him to the sofa. Sanji can see that there's an open suitcase under the coffee table which Zoro leans down to grab.

Sanji frankly doesn't care too much why they're not dating, as long as Zoro is not dating this mystery Robin he is happy for now. But Zoro apparently is going to explain anyway.

"For one, she's nine years older than me- which is fine, I don't think that she's old, but I'm pretty sure that she thinks I'm young. And secondly, she's fucking terrifying." Zoro grins at him.

"Oi, don't be a jerk about a lady like that. That's impolite." Sanji shoots back on principle and shoves Zoro in the shoulder, nearly toppling him into his suitcase.

"I couldn't agree more." A silky voice says from behind both of them, making him leap about a foot in the air and Zoro suck in a startled breath. He scrambles around and stares at the frankly gorgeous woman who had snuck up behind them like some kind of ghost. She's beautiful, with refined angular face and a straight nose which makes her look more like some marble carved goddess than a living, breathing woman. Her eyes are captivatingly blue with a hint of danger in them, a wry smile pulls on her full lips. He looks her up and down, her figure is voluptuous but still somehow slender, she's all curves in a way that Sanji had only thought airbrushed models with the help of photoshop could be.

"I didn't know you were still here." Zoro says flatly from somewhere behind Sanji.

"Evidently." The raven haired siren purrs with a threat of danger in her voice.

"See, this kind of shit is why you're fucking terrifying, you're a homicidal ninja." Zoro snorts.

"Zoro!" Sanji squawks indignantly, that idiot can't talk to a beautiful lady like that! Zoro's gaze doesn't even flick his way though.

"Don't you forget it." The lady smirks, her voice cold and sinister. A shudder ghosts up Sanji's spine and the look on the lovely lady's face is a macabre kind of malevolence that makes Sanji feel a little… unsafe right now.

"After what you did to poor Franky? No way, I know what you're like." Zoro smirks with, Sanji notes, a certain tone of affection and mirth in his voice under the layer of deadpan.

This situation is… weird. Sanji doesn't know what's going on with these two and he's not entirely happy with it either.

"Speaking of Franky, I thought he was supposed to be helping you move, instead you're with…" she trails off, casting her curious eyes his way.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. This is Sanji. Sanji, Robin, Robin, Sanji." Zoro hastily introduces them, gesturing from one to the other.

"Pleased to meet you my lady." He flutters despite himself, bowing in awe of Robin's magnificent beauty.

"Oh my, I'm very pleased to meet you too Sanji. I've heard nothing about you." Robin smiles catlike at him, her eyes flicking back to Zoro with a smirk on her lips. Zoro looks considerably uncomfortable under Robin's gaze.

"He's a friend." The other man says tightly, looking extremely displeased with this conversation. Despite himself Sanji can't help but feel the thing that may well be his heart fluttering in his chest, Zoro called him his friend! This morning he hadn't been sure that Zoro had thought of him at all beyond being some chatty guy that he talked to in some restaurant, but… but Zoro thinks more of him than that.

"I see." Robin says knowingly and looks sidelong at Sanji, her expression turning into a cunning grin. Sanji wonders what expression she's seen on him to make her make that kind of expression but he supposes that he'll never know, not when Zoro interrupts with something as abrupt as:

"Don't you have a goddamn job to go to?" the green-head growls menacingly.

"Indeed I do. Well, have fun boys. Bye-bye." Robin smiles charmingly at them and saunters out of the flat with an elegant wave and a waft of floral perfume.

By the time Sanji scrambles his brain together Zoro is already back to grumbling to himself under his breath as he shoves a few things into a suitcase.

"Oi, what's your deal? You shouldn't talk to a lady like that!" He reprimands, kicking Zoro in the elbow.

"Hey, if you knew her like I did, if you heard some of the creepy shit that she says you'd understand. Besides, Robin's cool." Zoro says shaking his head. He steps past the table and grabs what Sanji had just assumed to be some decoration off of the mantelpiece, as Zoro turns he sees that it's a sword in a sheath.

"Whoa, is that yours? Is it real?" he asks in interest, his hand reaching out to touch but not quite daring. Zoro's smile is broad and slightly dangerous as he pulls the sword from the sheath. God the thing is sharp and dangerous looking.

"Yeah she's real and… yeah, she's mine now." Zoro says. Sanji's eye stares back at him, reflected in the blade's pristine surface.

"Now? Did it take you ages to pay her off or something? This looks like one hell of an expensive sword." He whistles, impresses with it.

"Well, it's an antique. An heirloom actually. Kuina's father gave it to her, I was just keeping it safe until she got better but… well." Zoro trails off and snaps the hilt back over the sword and tucks the thing into his belt, Sanji can't help but notice the way that Zoro runs his thumb sadly over the metal end of the sword hilt.

Sanji doesn't know whether Zoro wants to talk about her or not. Sometimes if something to do with Kuina comes up in conversation Zoro will dodge right around the subject and avoid the whole topic, but sometimes he brings it up deliberately and tells Sanji things about her or about how he misses her. Right now seems to be the avoid it situation as Zoro grabs up his bags and shoves one into Sanji's chest and leads the way out of Robin's home. He takes the hint and follows in silence, heading down the stairs whilst Zoro locks up.

He comes out to the camero and slides Zoro's stuff into the back and buckles himself in. Zoro hops into the passenger seat with his sword resting between his knees.

"Where to now?" Sanji asks, starting the engine and thoroughly avoiding the question of Zoro's dead friend.

"Storage, it's on the main road that leads to the stadium." Zoro explains. Sanji nods and pulls off, he knows where he's going.

"So… how much stuff have you got in there? Is this gonna be three trips? Four?" he asks curiously as he indicates and pulls right.

"Nah, just one. I really don't have much." Zoro answers.

"Hmm… moves around a lot, not a lot of possessions. Are you a hobo?" Sanji guesses with a grin.

"I don't think hobo is a job title, and no. Guess again." The green-haired man smirks at him. Something in Sanji's chest settles a little at seeing that smile on Zoro's face.

"Lifeguard?" He guesses again hopefully, the idea of Zoro soaking wet and in skin-tight swimming trunks has a certain appeal. It'd explain the tan too.

"Oooh, I did do that one summer, but not now. Sorry." Zoro laughs and Sanji sorely wishes that he knew Zoro that summer.

"I'll guess, you'll see." Sanji argues back and kicks up some speed on the road, overtaking some idiot on his phone.

"Hey, so how long have you worked at the Baratie?" Zoro asks conversationally.

"Since I was about seven I guess. My old man owns the place, he adopted me when I was five and we saved for ages to finally afford it and I've been there ever since." Sanji answers.

"That must be nice." Zoro smiles, a little wistful perhaps.

"If you like living with your boss, then sure. It has its moments though." He adds with a touch of honesty, because cooking is his life, his love. Zoro looks a little melancholy and Sanji can't help but wonder if he's thinking of his dead friend.

"What about you? Have you got family nearby?" he asks, curious and wanting to pry more into Zoro's life.

"No, I've not got any family. All dead. I've got my friends though." Zoro shrugs, apparently unbothered by this. Despite Zoro's nonchalance about that statement, (he doesn't even look wounded or anything he's just staring out the window for fucks sake!) Sanji feels for him. It's not right.

"I don't have any friends." He blurts out unthinkingly and immediately wants to eat the words back up. Stupid! What will Zoro think of him now? The green haired man is staring at him wide eyed and Sanji briefly considers crashing the car and killing them both just to get out of this conversation.

"I don't believe that." Zoro says suspiciously and Sanji stays silent, squirming in his seat. The uncomfortable air apparently convinces Zoro though and the other man's eyebrows raise high on his face.

"How come?" Zoro asks with completely blatant curiosity.

"I'm kind of an asshole if you hadn't noticed." He grits out and distracts himself with indicating and looking for his exit.

"Only kind of." Zoro replies, making Sanji look at him in surprise. Zoro's grin is broad and slightly mean but his eyes are soft, as Sanji watches the grin cracks into something warmer and Sanji realises that this was meant to be some kind of stupid compliment.

"Shitty bastard." He mutters, making the turn and willing away the redness in his face.

"None at all though?" Zoro asks after a moment.

"No. The hours don't help either." He offers in some defence.

"Well. People are overrated anyway, mostly all idiots too." The other man grins, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back against the camero seat and making Sanji seriously want to break his no sex in the camero rule even if he is driving right now.

"I know, right? Always talking, fucking mouth breathers. Using their phones and shit." Sanji agrees.

"Having lives and feeling the need to interrupt yours too." The other man chimes in with an evil grin.

"Definitely. It'll be better when we're all extinct." He agrees.

"I guess this means that if you ever think of me as your friend I'll have to, what, jump off a bridge or something?" Zoro asks, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Sanji says seriously, making Zoro crack up with laugher. It's infectious and Sanji's giggling as well, so much so that he almost doesn't see the storage place and pull over in time.

He follows Zoro into the building and eventually they find a small storage unit that matches Zoro's key. He slides it open. Inside are a few pieces of furniture, a beat up old sofa and a few chairs, a shitty coffee table and a couple of decent sized boxes. He raises an eyebrow, there's no way he could or would even try to get that sofa into his car, and the coffee table is pushing it too.

"Don't look like that, the place is furnished. I only need the boxes." Zoro says, apparently catching his look.

Sanji shrugs and Zoro hands him one of the boxes, it's reasonably heavy but he doesn't complain as Zoro drops another on top of the box in his hands. Zoro stacks several together and then lifts them all up together in one impressive movement. Zoro walks out of the unit and Sanji follows, he watches as Zoro lifts one leg up and shifts the weight of the boxes to one hand and a knee as he rummages in his pocket for the key. Sanji shamelessly takes the opportunity to watch the play of muscles under Zoro's skin and tries to avoid the temptation to bite him. Zoro nudges the door shut with a narrow hip and locks it one handed before shoving the keys back into his jeans. He hefts the boxes, his back muscles tensing under the heavy load before he sets off down the hallway. Sanji follows, trying to wrench his mind out of the gutter and holding the boxes low enough to disguise his half hard state.

"You didn't have to do this." Zoro says, Sanji supposes that it's kind of another thank you from Zoro. They put the boxes into the back of the car, and only just fill it up. Zoro wasn't joking when he said that he didn't have much stuff.

"Where to now?" Sanji asks, instead of saying you're welcome. Zoro fishes an envelope out of his other pocket and hands it to Sanji, it's got an address on it, printed, and Sanji can see from the scuff on the paper an outline of where a key used to be in the envelope. The address itself is familiar to Sanji.

"Hey, this is like half a block from my house! You're just around the corner!" Sanji exclaims happily.

"Great, now I don't have to pretend to know where I'm going." Zoro grins as Sanji reverses out of the storage parking lot and drives in the direction of home.

Zoro's building is literally the one next to Sanji's, though he's a little lower down the building than Sanji is in his. It's a little more run down than Sanji's building, which says something as Sanji doesn't exactly live in the Ritz himself. The lift is broken so they heft the boxes up the stairs in one trip, neither opting to do the sensible thing and take those storage boxes in two easy trips, instead they're trying to out macho each other or some shit like that, though they'll have to go back for Zoro's suitcases and his sword.

Zoro lets him into his apartment, the number to which Sanji burns into his brain like the desperate stalker that he's apparently becoming. The place is nice, bare but nice. With the exception of what Sanji assumes to be the bathroom everything is in the one room. There's a metal framed bed just within sight of the door with cupboards and built in wardrobes around it, in the middle of the room is a beat up old sofa facing the wall which has a mark on it where previous tenants have obviously had a TV. In the far edge of the room is a decent little kitchen with counters around the edge, if this was Sanji's place he'd set up bar stools there so that you could have breakfast there in the morning sunlight.

Seriously, he's not fucking imagining living here with Zoro. He barely knows the man. God he's such a psycho.

Zoro puts his boxes on the floor and opens the top one, out of it he pulls a duvet and pillows which he hurls at the bed before carefully flattening the box and tossing it aside. He seems intent on unpacking right whilst Sanji's there, making the blonde feel a little awkward.

"I'll… I'll go get your suitcases and your sword, yeah?" He says, stepping backwards.

"Thanks!" Zoro calls from the inside of a larger box.

Sanji rushes down the stairs and wonders if he's doing the right thing here. Is he getting in too deep with someone who's really a stranger? Has he just built up some idea in his head of what Zoro is like and is he going to be disappointed the more he gets to know Zoro? Maybe, but he hasn't been yet.

He pulls Zoro's suitcases out with one hand and picks up his sword with the other. He closes the door to his baby carefully and thinks. He's gotten infatuated with this guy pretty quickly, he's never fallen for anyone quite so fast before but he has felt passionately about people before. It's… never ended well. Sensibly he knows that he should back off, there's no guarantee that Zoro even likes guys at all and Sanji may well get his heart broken here.

He bites his lip and promises himself that after today he'll try to avoid flirting with Zoro, he'll try to keep himself in check and just be Zoro's friend. He'll watch the other man like a hawk for any sign that the other man might be into him as more than just friends and if so he'll bite the bullet and lay his feelings out there. Until then though, he should just be happy to have a new friend and an unwitting star of his mental fantasies. He can do that.

He runs up the stairs and re-enters Zoro's place. The other man spots him, smiles and takes his sword back, he carefully leans it against his bed frame and takes his suitcases from Sanji as well. Zoro doesn't give him anything to do and doesn't tell him to leave either, leaving Sanji in a dithering state of uncertainty. Eventually he leans down and opens up a box, figuring that if Zoro wants to tell him to fuck off he will.

He finds a pair of smart shoes and a suit, obviously not something Zoro felt the need to keep on him often as he didn't have it at Robin's. He gives them to Zoro in his bedroom and the other man looks at them disdainfully before putting them away, interesting.

Next he finds a few books, all about swords or sword fighting techniques. Zoro doesn't have a bookcase so he stacks them next to the sofa. Next Zoro has a few really nice beer glasses, some fancy shot glasses too. Those he puts in a cupboard in the kitchen along with a small box that has "cutlery" scrawled on it in biro. He unpacks that box into a drawer and finds the biro with it, he leaves the on the side. The extent of Zoro's cooking equipment horrifies him he has one medium sized saucepan with an unstable looking handle and a chip in the side and a frying pan where half of the non-stick coating has come off. With the addition of a wooden spoon with the end broken off and a spatula that seems slightly melted that's all he has.

"Are you fucking kidding me with this cooking equipment?" He says out loud, looking up at a guilty looking Zoro.

"Ah… I didn't really want you to see that. I can't cook really, so… yeah." Zoro confesses with an air of embarrassment.

"That is just… I don't have words. Look at this!" He says indignantly holding up the awful excuse for a frying pan.

"I can make eggs! Well… fried or scrambled, and mainly they're only scrambled if I screw up frying them. Oh, and toast! And pasta, boil it for 20 minutes and then throw a sauce from a jar on it." Zoro says quickly, hurting Sanji's soul with each word. What kind of demon cooks pasta for 20 goddamn minutes?!

"You need to stop talking now, you're ruining my brain." Sanji insists, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to repress the horror. He looks up at Zoro and thinks bitterly that Zoro does not deserve that body if he eats like that.

"Listen, you need to unpack and I think I need to go home and look at my cooking equipment after that. You are going to buy new equipment tomorrow or I swear I'll kill you and dump your body in the ocean. But listen, you're not going to want to do whatever pathetic excuse for cooking that you do after you're done unpacking, so come over to mine and I'll cook for you if you like. Here." He says grabbing Zoro's hand and using that biro he found earlier to write his address and phone number on the palm of Zoro's hand.

"Did… did you just threaten to murder me and ask me over for dinner at the same time?" Zoro asks, staring at his hand wide eyed.

"Yes." Sanji answers, jutting his jaw out as if to challenge Zoro to call him on that. The edge of Zoro's mouth quirks up in a grin.

"See you later then I guess." The other man smirks at him.

"Later." Sanji agrees and saunters out of Zoro's flat as cool as anything and far different to the shaking wreck that he is inside.

He pulls the door to behind him and freaks out in the privacy of his head. What the fuck was that? He practically just asked Zoro out, he could hardly be more forward without dropping to his knees and opening Zoro's fly with his teeth! Shit shit shit! He's such a shitty idiot. What if Zoro doesn't come over? What if he does?


	3. Chapter 3

Sanji has this fantasy about Zoro. Okay, he has about a million, but one in particular is coursing through his veins right now. He imagines that he'll be at Zoro's one night, he'll be showing off his cooking skills making something just for the two of them. Zoro will be sitting hopped up on the work surface, his feet idly kicking against the drawers as they talk. He can see the beer in Zoro's hand, he can imagine the drops of condensation on its surface running down to Zoro's fingers.

He'll ask Zoro to pass him something and the man won't respond, so he'll go to get it himself. But it'll turn out that Zoro was listening all along and just didn't answer. As he steps into the corner where Zoro is the other man will slide off of the counter top to the floor to reach… whatever it was Sanji wanted. It doesn't matter because then, by sheer fluke, Zoro will be pressed up against him. He'll be able to feel every hot line of Zoro's body just radiating through his clothes and he'll be so, so close.

Zoro's cheeks will flush red and though his eyes won't meet Sanji's right away he'll know that Zoro is thinking just the same thing he is. So with all anxiety forgotten he'll simply lean into Zoro, trap him against the kitchen surfaces and claim his lips. His hands will find the counter top and he'll wind his fingers around Zoro's. The green haired man's lips will part with a gasp and Sanji will chase his way into his mouth.

He has fantasies about Zoro grabbing him and throwing him into bed, but in this one Zoro's not like that. In this fantasy it's him who does the chasing, maybe he'll be the first man that Zoro's been with. Maybe before him Zoro's not been attracted to men and when he came along he turned Zoro's world upside down. In this one Zoro is cautious and needy, maybe in this one Zoro's so still because he can't believe that his fantasies have come true. Oh yeah, that's a good part, that maybe Zoro does this too. Maybe Zoro dedicates hot dreams to him and steam filled mornings in the shower to him, maybe Zoro can't help but do this too and perhaps he wants Sanji so much as well that in moments like this he's just frozen because something he wants so bad is finally happening.

Either way Zoro will gasp when Sanji kisses him and of course Sanji will use that excuse to invade Zoro's mouth further because it'll be so clear from how Zoro will kiss him back that he wants it just as badly. He'll let Zoro's mouth go only to bite those three earrings.

"Sanji-" Zoro will gasp brokenly into his ear.

Fuck. That didn't last long. Sanji curls around his hand in the shower as he shudders out the rest of his orgasm. He scrubs his body and sighs at himself. This is getting stupid, he's getting off to Zoro at least once a day now. But still, it serves a purpose.

The knocking on the front door makes him jump and swear, leaping out of the shower and roughly towelling off as he curses himself for losing track of time.

"Hold on!" He shouts loudly and drags boxers and jeans over his still damp body. He grabs a shirt as he dashes out of the bathroom towards the front door and is just tugging it down when he opens the front door.

"Zombieland." Zoro grins deviously at him, holding up the DVD as he leans on Sanji's door frame.

"This had better be at least half as good as you said it was." Sanji threatens, stepping aside to let Zoro in his home. He shuts the door after him and takes a calming breath before following Zoro to the living room and kitchen area.

"It's even better." Zoro laughs, already opening up his DVD player and chucking the disc in.

"Pft. Is that even possible? You bigged this thing up so much. Hey, beer?" He calls as he heads to the kitchen.

"Yeah man." Zoro agrees from somewhere behind the sofa. Sanji retrieves the beers, returns to the sofa and drops himself into the seat and very deliberately doesn't look at Zoro's ass as he is knelt on the floor changing the audio settings on the speakers.

When Zoro settles onto the sofa near him and takes a beer, his fingers just grazing Sanji's. He doesn't think about his fantasy where he twined his fingers with Zoro and plundered his mouth with his tongue. And he won't either. Until he's got even the slightest clue that Zoro feels the same way about him he won't do a thing. This is the best friendship he's had in his entire life and no one makes him happier than Zoro does when he's with him.

"We'll see, moss head." He teases as he grins back at Zoro and clinks his beer with him as the film begins.

He won't ruin this. Not even for the sake of a million fantasies.


	4. Chapter 4

Zoro slicks his hands through his hair, it's still a little wet after his post-run shower. It'll dry soon enough though, it's a nice warm day. He sidles into the Baratie as he usually does at least once a day, the amazingly irritating blonde isn't behind the counter for once, and instead he's sitting in one of the booths by the window.

Surprisingly for Sanji he doesn't even notice Zoro come in, but he's on the phone in all fairness. His eyes are screwed shut and his teeth are gritted. In his free hand he's tensely winding a butter knife around his fingers, sliding it between one then the other so that it makes its way up and down his hand, every so often he seems to just spin it and clutch it tensely as if he wants to leap through the phone and stab whomever he's talking to.

"Yes, I got that but-" Sanji grits out between his teeth.

"No, look… isn't there someone else I can talk to? Someone higher up? We just need a few more months to catch up, we're paying you whatever we can manage, it's not like we've not paid at all." Sanji reasons, spinning the knife in his hand and tapping at it tensely with his nails.

"Listen, I know that you've got a job to do but we just need more time to pay the mortgage. Can't you just drop us down to interest only one, even if just for a little while? I'm working all the hours of the day to keep this place open and we can't just-" Sanji pleads, sounding broken. Zoro hesitates in the floor of the middle of the restaurant, he probably shouldn't be hearing this.

"Please, this restaurant is everything to my father, we're giving you all we have. Can't you just make an exception this once?" the blonde begs. Zoro frowns and peers at the table, there are bank statements, order forms and final demand letters from the bank all over the place.

"The end of the month isn't- hello? Are you still there? Hello? Oh shit fuck shit shit shit!" Sanji snarls, slamming the phone on the table and burying his head in his hands.

"Sanji?" Zoro calls quietly, touching the blonde on the shoulder and startling him.

Sanji looks up at him with stunned tearful eyes, though Zoro can actually only see the one of them. Ever since Kuina died Sanji's somehow become one of the most important people in Zoro's life perhaps… perhaps even the most important. Sanji's brilliant wit and shitty grin was what helped Zoro stick his heart back together after that phone call about Kuina's death shattered it. It's only been a few months but still, he sees him every day, they hang out together. With Sanji around Zoro feels whole in a way that he can't explain.

Only now Sanji looks as bad as he felt the day Kuina died.

"Oh god, Zoro. I didn't even- I'm so sorry I was- let me get you-" Sanji stammers out, trying to get to his feet. Zoro puts pressure on his shoulder and shoves him back into his seat, like hell is he going to let the cook run around after him when he's like this.

"Talk, or I kick your ass. You know I will." Zoro threatens. And he means it too, he and Sanji have had their scuffles since they met, arguments that became so heated that blows were exchanged. Admittedly it is mostly a way of letting off steam and it always pretty quickly devolves to scuffling on the floor, kneeing and elbowing each other until one of them gives up. It usually takes a while but judging by the grin on Sanji's face whenever they fight it always makes both of them feel a mile better. Zoro would admit in the privacy of his head that being sprawled out on the living room floor with Sanji all banged up, sore and sweaty that it was almost as good a stress reliever as sex. Not that he ever thought of Sanji like that of course. Still, fighting with Sanji was easier than getting laid and usually he got a beer and some good conversation after.

Still, a fight isn't what the blonde needs now, right now he needs to talk.

Sanji looks sick. His gaze drops to the paper on the table.

"It's the bank. This place used to be hugely popular so we could afford a really big mortgage on the place, we always turned a really decent profit with enough left over to save or splurge on really fancy ingredients. But then I pissed off some middle man at a fancy newspaper and he went around to all of his friends telling them how awful we were." Sanji explains tightly.

"He even went so far as to bribe health inspectors to harass us when there was never anything wrong with the place at all. You know how finicky I am about cleaning up when I cook." Sanji argues fiercely, looking up at Zoro with determined eyes.

"You're pretty anal about it. But couldn't you just have appealed? There must be something in place to get you re-tested." He frowns at the blonde.

"We did, and they reversed their decision, but the damage was done. No one came to eat here anymore and we had to shut down the other half of the place, through there." Sanji says, pointing to the screen that separates the Baratie from what Zoro had always assumed to be an empty building next door.

"We had to cut back on staff so it's just me and Zeff, but the geezer is old and he can't work endlessly like I can, so we have to pay Patty and Carne to fill in when he needs time off, he still does forty hour weeks though. But with the outgoings and shit we just… we've been under paying on the mortgage and I've been trying my luck with the bank for the last six months but…" Sanji cuts himself off with a shake of the head.

"If I don't pay them for the last two months at least then they'll come in at the end of the month and repossess the place." Sanji finishes tightly, dropping his head into his hands. He's shaking slightly and Zoro thinks that he might be crying.

Zoro is reeling. He knows just how much this place means to Sanji, it's his life and it was his old man's dream. Sanji would do anything for this place and for his old man. This explains why Sanji never takes a day off if he can help it though, if he does someone else has to cover him and, Zoro guesses, they have to pay for it. For a paranoid moment he wonders if Sanji's refusal to let Zoro pay for his food every time has done this, but he shakes it off. The mortgage for a restaurant as big as this, if they do indeed own next door too, in a place as nice and central like it is… it must be phenomenal. His meals that Sanji occasionally gives him for free are just a drop in the ocean in comparison.

"How much would it take to save this place?" He demands, grabbing Sanji's shoulder.

"Zoro, I can't take money from you, and I doubt you have that much just lying around anyway." Sanji answers shaking his head.

"I didn't say that, just how short are you?" he asks again.

"Forty grand, and I've got ten days to earn that in. It's not going to happen, we've lost." The blonde says in a tiny voice and Zoro feels the tremor that runs through him.

"That won't happen, I won't let it. How many people could you get in here, how many could you feed as an absolute maximum?" Zoro questions him, leaping up and looking around the place.

"Like… two hundred at a push. But even in our prime we so rarely-" Sanji protests with a deep frown.

"I don't care, could you feed them if you had to?" He presses, turning back to the confused blonde.

"Well, yes but-"

That's all the answer Sanji needs, Zoro is already running for the door.

"Get everyone working here tonight, get as much food as you can and open up for everyone. You're not going out of business Sanji, not whilst I'm around!" He yells over his shoulder as he sprints out the door.

He heads to the Galley-La company first to see Franky but on the way he pulls out his phone and calls Luffy.

"Oi, Luffy! I've got this great place to eat, we're gonna have a huge party there tonight, we've got the whole place to ourselves. I swear, you can eat until you explode, just pay for it." He pants down the phone as he runs.

"Oh BOY! Is it really good? You know that buffet place won't let me back, they said I ruined the all you can eat deal. Will this place have enough food for me? Oh, can Ace come too?" Luffy gasps excitedly.

"Bring Ace, I don't care if you have to drag him there. All you have to do is pay, alright? It's called the Baratie and it's right on All Blue road, running right through town. Tonight at seven, be there!" He orders as Luffy hangs up with an excited whoop. Well that's Luffy and Ace sorted, no doubt Ace will bring his boyfriend Marco or whatever.

It doesn't matter as by now he's at Galley La. He runs through the buildings, ignoring people shouting at him until he runs into Franky.

"Franky! You know how you said that you owed me big for bailing on me when you were supposed to help me move?" Zoro gasps, trying to catch his breath as Franky looks up at him dubiously from some complicated schematic or plan that Zoro will never understand.

"Yeah but, Zoro-bro, I'm working here. How did you even manage to run in here past everyone? Security should have-" Franky frowns at him.

"Don't care, not my problem. You owe me, time to pay up. There's this restaurant on All Blue road, the Baratie. I need you to bring as many people there tonight as possible and eat there." He orders the blue haired guy.

"I can't just get everyone to-" Franky protests weakly.

"I know you can, and you owe me. Do this for me and we're even, I'll even owe you if I have to, just get everyone there!" Zoro argues back as he backs out of Franky's office.

"Why are you so insistent on this place? What's up with you?" the engineer questions him, following him out of the room.

"It's a favour for a friend, just bring everyone!" He shouts over his shoulder as he heads off in the direction of the university to see Robin.

"A friend? What friend Zoro?! OI!" Franky hollers after him but Zoro is already dialling Usopp's number as he runs.

Zoro spends all morning bouncing from place to place, hitting up all of his friends, all of the mutual friends that he has. He even goes so far as to call up flings and his semi-regular booty call to get them to show up as well. He calls in favours, accepts owing people favours, and even goes so far as to promise to buy half of Nami's drink for her to get her to bring her family. All told though he's fairly certain that Sanji will have people queuing out the door tonight, and he got the people who couldn't make it tonight to agree to show up tomorrow.

He texts the Baratie's address out to so many people that he's sure he sees it when he shuts his eyes. That was of course if he image he saw when he shut his eyes wasn't Sanji's tearful face. Every time he thinks about his friend losing the thing he loves most it feels like his heart is being ripped out. He won't let Sanji suffer like that, and if it means that he has to stomach parties with friends of friends that he doesn't really like then he'll do it a million times over. Anything to never have to see Sanji looking like that again.

When he shows up at six feeling dog tired there are already near thirty people there, forty if you count how many Ace and Luffy are eating for and more are coming in all the time. He smiles in relief and heads over to the D brothers who are wolfing down food like it's going out of style. He doesn't get there though because Sanji catches his arm and pulls him close.

"Zoro, what the hell? All these people say that you told them to be here, did you call up everyone you knew or something?" Sanji asks him, wide eyed with his hand on Zoro's elbow.

"You can feed them all right? Because there's way more coming tonight." He asks with a frown.

"Well, sure but… how many more?" the blonde asks wide eyed.

"You're not gonna have any seats left by the end of tonight. Do you need me to get anything so that you can feed everyone?" he questions, leaning into Sanji's space a little to be heard.

Sanji looks at him, his blue eye shining and looking at him as if he's only just seen him for the first time or something.

"Really that many people?" the blonde asks in a tiny voice.

"I said so. You're not going to be short of that money, so, do you need me?" He asks.

"Shit. I can send Patty out to get more food and I can cook faster than him at any rate and better. Could… could you wait for me? Take people's orders?" Sanji asks him, looking hesitant to ask that much.

"Sure thing. You got something to write on?" He asks. Sanji nods and hands him the pen and paper from his pocket, taking the filled sheets on top. Zoro nods and turns to go to Robin and her university friends as they come in the door.

"Zoro, you got all these people here for me?" the cook asks him from his side, his expression intense but unreadable.

"Of course I did, moron, who else would I have done it for? Go cook, dumbass." He snorts and shoves Sanji in the direction of the kitchen.

He then heads for Robin and her friends.

"So this is where your little friend Sanji is from." Robin purrs as she slides in next to Nami and her sister.

"You knew about this guy?" Nami gasps, looking at Robin.

"He helped Zoro move out of mine, they were very friendly." Robin says innocently in a way that suggests that Zoro had thrown Sanji down on her couch and fucked him or something. Which is stupid because, duh, this was Sanji and it's not like that. But her goddamn tone implies otherwise.

"Zoro!" Nami's sister gasps with a sinful grin. Shit, Zoro can't remember her name. It starts with N. God, this is why he doesn't hang out with his friend's friends or family, he doesn't like talking to people when he's not drunk and he doesn't like talking to people he doesn't really care about. Not that there's anything wrong with Nami's sister, she's just not one of his friends is all.

"Are you working here now Zoro? What about your job?" Nami questions him with a frown.

"I'm only working here tonight, and it's just for Sanji. I'm doing him a favour. Now, are you gonna order something or not?" He prompts with a scowl.

"Social skills Zoro, work on them. What's good here anyways?" Nami asks with a curious frown.

"Everything is amazing, pick something." He growls. They all eventually order and he manages to write the orders all down in neat handwriting that he really hopes Sanji can read. He even manages to write all their drink orders down too and ignore all of their prying questions and giggling laughs.

He rushes around handing order after order to Sanji and working out how to serve drinks, with Sanji yelling instructions at him through the open hatch in the wall behind the bar.

By the end of the evening the place is absolutely packed, with people crowded into booths far more than they should and people having paid and left and new ones replaced them. The compliments are effusive and Zoro readily tells anyone who will listen to come back tomorrow and, hey, the place is open for breakfast and lunch too!

Before too long the pace of ordering has slowed down enough for Sanji to take over as Patty works in the kitchen, just keeping Sanji's dishes ticking over and replenishing as he needs to. Sanji is not only a better cook but a seamless waiter too, putting Zoro's efforts to shame. The cook eventually forces him into a seat at the bar and makes him some special off the menu dish that Zoro has no idea what it is but tastes fantastic. Afterwards he's not sure that he could tell you what was in it beyond just gesturing at the empty plate and making satisfied sounds.

He decides to get his friends drinking more to drive the bill up, he knows that they're good for it anyway. So he sits at their table and starts a drinking contest with Nami which the others all try to keep up with a little. Sanji comes over and starts dishing out drinks.

"SO, SANJI." Nami blurts slightly drunkenly, catching the cook by the elbow. Zoro winces inside, this will be bad.

"How long have you known ZORO here?" She asks overly loudly, gesturing to Zoro who is rapidly regretting getting her drunk at all.

"Uh… a little while my loveliness." Sanji answers, perplexed but still ruthlessly polite.

"So a couple of years? How come you've never told us 'bout him Zoro?! What's with you?!" Nami accuses him and kicks him under the table.

"You're drunk, shut up." Zoro growls back, earning himself a whap on the head from Sanji's order pad for the insult.

"It's actually more like three months, that about right?" Sanji answers, flicking a look to Zoro. Zoro nods and slides down in his seat as all of his friends bar Robin nearly disjoint their necks in their sudden haste to look shocked at Sanji.

"What?" The blonde asks surprised as Zoro tries to calculate the odds of getting caught if he just slides under the table and crawls away from what is sure to be an awful conversation.

"Zoro never makes friends that quickly! We all had to force ourselves on him!" Luffy laughs loudly.

"You all but stalked me for a month, that's not normal!" Zoro argues back, but Luffy just laughs.

"It took you six months to stop looking at me like I was planning to kill you." Robin points out softly.

"And I'm still not sure about that, look will you just-" he protests but Usopp is cutting over him.

"Yeah, and it was about the same until Zoro ever called me and invited me anywhere without Luffy!" the longnose chips in, a few of the others agree.

"Look, will you stop making me look like some evil people-phobic bastard!" He snarls at them.

"Zoro-bro, you don't like people. You know everyone in this room but the only people you actually decide to let be your friends are on this table." Franky says solemnly, gesturing to them all.

Zoro deliberately does not look up at Sanji, he doesn't want to know what kind of expression the cook is wearing right now.

"And for Zoro to do all of this for you so soon…" Nami continues but seems unable to find the words and instead just laughs in disbelief.

"I think I left some whiskey behind the bar." Zoro mutters, getting up from the table and stalking over to the bar. He grabs a third full bottle of whiskey, drops thirty dollars in the till and leans against the side of the bar to drink in peace.

He doesn't want to know what his friends are saying to Sanji. He's really not as bad as all of that. He just… he's clear on what people are. He has lovers, he has friends and he has people he tolerates. There are also people he hates but he didn't invite any of them. Why should he pretend to be friends with someone if he isn't really? It's just rude. It's not like he's crazy or anything.

He glances to the side to see Sanji standing silent and wide eyed as his friends laugh and talk to him. The blonde looks his way and pins Zoro with a look of confusion and something… something deeper. He's seen Sanji look at him that way before, late at night when they've had a bit to drink Sanji looks at him sometimes with real affection in his eyes. It's a testament to how powerful their new friendship has become that Sanji can seemingly put that intense bond into a look that right now has frozen Zoro to the spot.

He shakes it off and heads out the back and offers to wash up. Zeff gladly accepts his help and to Zoro's pleasure leaves him in silence.

Zoro glances out into the restaurant and sees Sanji tallying up bills and the people he invited gladly paying up and tipping heavily, as they should for such amazing food. The till is overflowing and the beep of the card machine is continuous. Zoro smiles to himself, no way the Baratie is going out of business now, he can hear Luffy and Ace swearing to come here every day.

Eventually everyone trails out of the restaurant at about two in the morning and Sanji joins him at the sink where the cook washes and Zoro dries.

"How much did you make?" he questions after a little while.

"There's costs as well of course but… I think about fifty grand I don't… that's more than I needed for the rest of the month. How did you even manage that?" Sanji asks him, leaning away from the sink as the last of the water drains out of it and he dries his hands.

"I just called in a lot of favours and got my friends to call everyone they knew. Some couldn't make it so I hope you'll be able to serve the same number tomorrow too." He shrugs, sliding the last of the plates away into a cupboard off to the side.

Sanji's hand catches on the back of his shirt and the blonde rests his head on the back of Zoro's neck, he stays still.

"How can I ever repay you for this? You've saved us, in one night you've…" Sanji breathes against Zoro's back. He can feel Sanji's eyelashes on his neck.

He turns and the cook is so close, his face flushed with emotion that makes Zoro's heart warm. Sanji loves this place so goddamn much, it's just radiating from him, and now he gets to keep it.

"You don't owe me a thing. I told you, I wouldn't let your dream die whilst I was around." He grins back.

"But still…" Sanji frowns.

"Sanji, you're one of my closest friends, you don't owe me a thing. Unfortunately now you're not gonna be able to get rid of them, so I hope you liked them, Luffy especially." He teases, that makes the cook laugh.

"I've never seen anyone eat like that." Sanji agrees with a chuckle, heading out to the front to clean the tables. He throws Zoro a wet rag and he helps out, turning chairs onto the table when he's done.

They're both dog tired so they mostly clean up in silence, though he catches the cook staring at him over and over again, with some unreadable expression on his face. He must just be so overwhelmed at not losing the Baratie. Zoro smiles, it feels good to help Sanji out, he deserves it. He made the worst day of his life okay, the least he can do is this.

When Sanji locks up, they both walk home together, shoulders bumping tiredly as they follow the route together, Sanji's building is just beyond his after all. They come to a stop at the foot of Zoro's building and as he turns to say goodnight to the cook he finds Sanji giving him that overwhelmed expression again.

"If you thank me again or say you can't repay me one more time I swear you'll be picking your teeth up off of the floor." He threatens, getting quite tired of Sanji making him feel weird inside from the gratitude or whatever. He thinks it's that expression Sanji keeps wearing.

The blonde laughs and instead does something unexpected. He leaps forward and wraps his arms around Zoro's neck, pulling him tight into a hug that says all those things and more. His hands linger on Sanji's sides for a moment before sliding around his back and holding him close as well.

"Careful shitty cook, I might think that you're being nice to me if you keep this up." He warns quietly.

"Can't have that." Sanji agrees with a sniff as he pulls away and swipes a hand at his eyes. The cook would probably deny that he's crying a little bit.

"See you in the morning for breakfast, curlicue." Zoro calls as he heads into his building.

"Yeah." Sanji replies faintly.

Zoro yawns and heads inside to go to sleep. He's so so tired. He'll probably never hear the end of his secret friendship with Sanji from the others. Robin and Nami will pull at him for information forever and Franky will tease him. Right now though… he's okay with that. It was worth it.


	5. Chapter 5

For the last few weeks Zoro's had this strange feeling, this phantom itch under his skin. He feels antsy, like he's craving something. He's tried changing how much he works out, how much he drinks, whether he has coffee, but nothing seems to fix it. It's only when one day when he goes over to Sanji's that he realises what his problem is.

Sanji was running late, he always was. When he'd got there Sanji had just literally thrown a towel on himself and sprinted out of the shower, he was still damp all over and his hair was dropping trails of water down endless pale bare skin.

"Just gimme a sec to get dressed!" Sanji had panted, dashing to his wardrobe and flinging it open. Zoro had lingered in the door, some smart remark dying on his lips as Sanji twists and the towel sinks a little lower on his waist exposing lean hips and the curve of his ass. It's only then when Zoro's brain faltered and his smart remark died on his lips that he realised that it's his sex drive that'd been itching at him for the last few weeks.

He'd excused himself and left Sanji to get dressed, he figured it must have been getting bad if his best friend was starting to push his buttons. He's not got a very overwhelming sex drive, or rather, not one that usually requires other people. He's got a pretty good grip on the whole thing, no innuendo intended of course. Still, he had a couple of people he could call on for casual sex when his own hand won't do the job.

Even if his job would let him have a relationship, which it won't, he doesn't really believe in them. He's got people that he cares about deeply, like Sanji for example, and he's got people that he fucks. He keep the two groups incredibly separate, the only person who's ever crossed the line from lover to friend was Ace and that's only because Ace stopped sleeping with him when he got together with Marco. Even with that the only reason Zoro still keeps in any kind of contact with him is because he's Luffy's brother and truthfully he feels uncomfortable even doing that.

He doesn't like mixing the two groups because feelings are dangerous enough without throwing sex into the equation. He's seen more than enough train wrecks of relationships to not want anything to do with that.

Take Sanji for example, he'd do anything for that man, he feels like he can tell him damn near anything and that Sanji would accept him for it. But if he lost that just because he listened to his dick… well, he'd be devastated. But instead he's going to be smart, he's going to get laid elsewhere and keep his relationship with Sanji exactly as it is right now. It's genius. Anyway, it's not really anything to do with Sanji at all, it's just his sex drive playing up and latching onto anything it can find.

"Oi, freakshow, quit spacing out. We're gonna be late." Sanji interrupts him, knocking on Zoro's head.

"You're the one who wasn't ready." He argues back, following Sanji out of the door. His eyes flick down to Sanji's tight black jeans clad butt for a moment before he wrenches them back up, yeah… he needs to take care of this soon.

He follows Sanji down the stairs of his building and down into Sanji's car. The cook has to drive quickly or else they're going to miss the start of their movie and the others will be pissed off at them. Sanji drives crazily but gets them there in time, though Zoro swears that they should be dead from the number of close calls that they've had.

Sanji grabs Zoro's hand and sprints with him in tow towards the cinema. Zoro feels his stomach flip and stares at their joined hands. Crap, why is Sanji even doing this?

"My sense of direction isn't that bad, you don't need to yank me around like a child!" He squawks tugging his hand back.

"We don't have time for you to get lost and I've seen you get lost in your own building, so come ON!" Sanji shouts over his shoulder at him, tugging Zoro around a corner by his jacket. They sprint into the cinema, breathlessly order their tickets and haul ass to their screen. Miraculously they manage to drop into their seats by Zoro's other friends just as the rating title card for the film is flashing up.

"What kept the two of you so busy?" Robin purrs in his ear, leaning over from the seat next to him.

"Don't." He warns under his breath. His mind is already in the gutter enough tonight as is without her help.

Sanji stretches his long legs out into the aisle and gives a breathy little sigh that dives straight into Zoro's hyped up sex drive. His eyes flick to Sanji's long legs and for a split second his irritating sex drive whispers the idea of just what those legs would feel like wrapped tight around him.

Sanji looks over at him through impossibly long lashes, blue eyes all dark because of the dim theatre night, they so easily could be blown out from something else… The cook smiles at him, making Zoro's stomach clench tightly.

"I gotta go." He squeaks and slips past the confused cook and dashes out of their screen. It's too much, being that close to Sanji is just setting his nerves on fire.

"Zoro! Are you okay?" Sanji gasps behind him, his hand skittering down Zoro's back and his mind flying firmly into the gutter.

"I'm fine, you stay I just gotta… go." He chokes out the last word as he glances back at Sanji's wide eyes and open mouth, looking for all the world like an invitation to grab him and kiss him.

He dashes out of the cinema and pulls out his phone, he dials the number of his long term booty call.

"Daz, if I text you my address can you make it tonight? I really need-" He cuts himself off because Daz knows full well what he needs.

"Sure, always got time for you Zoro. Send me your new address." Daz purrs down the phone. Zoro hangs up and quickly texts the other man his address and starts to run home. He can't let his stupid sex drive ruin things with his best friend, he can't and he won't.

He really would have preferred to call Ace, he's more in the mood to top someone than be topped, but Ace is off limits ever since he got together with Marco. Still, Daz has never let him down and right now his sex drive has no basis for being picky, especially when Daz is guaranteed to blow his mind.

He arrives home breathless just in time to find Daz waiting at his door.

"Thought you weren't coming." Daz says deeply, his voice always sets Zoro a little on edge. It's so deep and rough that some part of his brain just whines at having it directed at him, it part of why this thing between them works so well.

Daz has easily a foot on Zoro, if not more and he's hardly short himself. In addition to that Daz is way broader than Zoro himself is and the guy can throw him around like a ragdoll if he pleases, which he often does. He has a way of just owning space that makes Zoro feel like a guest in his own damn hallway.

"I was across the other side of town." He explains breathlessly.

Daz tilts his head expectantly and Zoro scrambles to open the door, as soon as the lock is open Daz shoves him inside, making Zoro stumble.

His sex life is kind of complicated. He has things that he likes in his sexual partners and picks them depending on his varying moods, Ace was someone that he could struggle with but ultimately top, he's had short term flings who were really submissive but he didn't really like that. Whilst he prefers to be the one in control he wants to feel a little bit like he's earned it.

Now Daz… Daz was a bit of an exception. As previously mentioned Daz was huge in every sense of the word. Big body, hugely powerful and… well, the rest of him matched too. Daz was particularly into being dominant and whilst Zoro usually couldn't be described as submissive sometime it could be nice, besides Daz always blew his mind enough for Zoro to be more than happy enough to play along to his kink. And if he ever got like this, so strung out with desire as to be pretty much useless, Daz was the guy to call.

"You're really far gone aren't you?" Daz murmurs, hauling Zoro's shirt off of him without Zoro's help. He just whines, his thoughts stupidly skittering to his best friend again, so he puts up no resistance when Daz just bodily lifts him up and drops him on his bed.

"Been a while?" Daz questions, popping Zoro's buttons open with one of his giant hands. Zoro doesn't answer but instead sighs and shuffles further up the bed.

"Oi, answer me." Daz orders, pressing a hand into Zoro's chest and pinning him where he is.

"Yes, alright. It's been a while." Zoro answers, glaring up at the bigger man. He knows full well that if he tried to ignore Daz's order and move he wouldn't be able to, Daz isn't someone that he has to play being powerless to – the other man is so freakishly big and freakishly strong that Zoro just doesn't have a choice. He kinda likes it like that.

"Even so, this is a little much even for you. What's got you all wound up?" he questions yanking Zoro's jeans and underwear off in one big motion.

Zoro's brain flashes him a helpful image of Sanji's long lean legs, an image of his beaming smile, and the feel of Sanji curled up against him on the sofa. What is happening to him?

"I don't know." He answers honestly.

"Doesn't matter." Daz shrugs and bites a mark into Zoro's shoulder, possessive as always. Zoro yelps but the sound is swallowed by Daz's lips on his own. He relaxes into it and lets the other man do what he wants, complying with every order because he trusts Daz to do what he wants.

He's so needy that Daz is able to exercise his favourite trick of keeping Zoro just on the precipice of coming for ages, speeding up and slowing down to keep him there and leaving him hovering on that line until he's a shaking wreck and he actually cracks and begs for it. Daz has him on his bed on his knees, held tight to Daz's chest by one of Daz's arms which stretches across Zoro's chest to his shoulder, pinning both of his arms to him. Daz has his other hand on Zoro's hip, bruisingly hard just in case Zoro gets any ideas about trying to change the pace of things on his own. He's strung tight like a violin string just vibrating with tension, a whine and a plea falls from Zoro's lips. Only then does Daz let him come, and of course it's brain meltingly amazing.

Afterwards he's sprawled out face down over Daz's huge torso, one leg sprawled on either side of Daz's. He's covered in bruises and hickeys with Daz stroking his back like he's some kind of cat. It helps bring him back down to earth though, and it feels nice so Zoro never minds.

"So catch me up on things then." Daz says and Zoro is still in his obedient headspace enough that he opens his mouth and answers.

"Kuina died which… I was prepared for I guess. It hurt though." He answers into the sheets.

"Mmm, sorry." Daz says gently, rubbing through Zoro's hair.

"And I met someone." Zoro continues sleepily, that makes Daz's hand pause through whatever wonderful thing he's doing to Zoro's hair.

"Tell." He says authoritatively.

"He's a cook, my best friend. It's new but… yeah." Zoro smiles dopily. He wouldn't really admit it but he's almost as fond of this part of Daz's visits as he is the actual sex. Daz rubs his neck kneading fingers into the muscles there and making Zoro melt.

"Describe what he's like." Daz commands and puts pressure on a knot in Zoro's neck, making it unravel and feel miles better. He's been tense lately, Zoro all but purrs at the feeling.

"He's amazing. He's so passionate about what he does and so open and… it's like he just took me inside his heart the moment I met him. I've never made a connection with anyone that quick but I feel like I've been his friend for my whole life, thinking about what things were like before him hurts. He's my best friend." Zoro explains with a smile against Daz's skin. Sanji is really great.

"Sounds like there's a little more to it than that." The other man notes.

"I don't- there's not. We're friends. But before I called you I couldn't stop thinking about him like- it's just wrong." He grumbles unhappily, pushing himself up on his elbows and moving off of the other man. Daz rolls onto his side and stretches, ceasing his petting.

"Well let me know when you figure that out. But you know the rules, if you start sleeping with him you both need to get tested if you want to keep sleeping with me." Daz says firmly. Daz happens to be in an open relationship, both him and his girlfriend have regular people that they sleep with and Zoro is Daz's, he thinks he's Daz's only one right now actually.

Daz and his girlfriend have strict rules about getting regular screenings though and Zoro is fine with that, though when he and Ace had been hooking up regularly they both had to get tested before Daz would let him back into bed. It was all very sensible and Zoro respects that. Still, it's hardly applicable to Sanji.

"I'm not going to sleep with him." Zoro groans, scrubbing at his face. He squeezes his eyes shut and can't help but wonder if Sanji ever would sleep with him, he shakes his head.

"He's my best friend, I'm not losing that." He adds vehemently, shoving the idea aside.

"I'm just… wound up is all. It's just my sex drive making me see things that aren't there." He declares, shooting Daz a firm look.

"You trying to convince yourself or me here, kitten?" Daz smirks, scratching Zoro's hair.

"I've told you not to call me that, I don't care how much you like it." Zoro snaps, batting Daz's hand away.

"Suits you so well though, all claws, fuzz and teeth but inside you want to be someone's pet." The bigger man chuckles, sitting up in bed.

"Fuck OFF." Zoro snarls and kicks Daz, not that it does anything but make the bigger man laugh.

"Like I said, let me know when you work it out. Oh, by the way, I've got a favour to ask you." Daz says standing up and stretching before starting to pick his clothes up off of the floor.

"Oh?" Zoro asks curiously, Daz isn't usually one to ask for anything.

"Paula wants to watch us, at mine I mean. Would you be up for that?" Daz asks, looking over his shoulder at Zoro.

"Your girlfriend wants to watch you fuck me in your bed?" Zoro asks with disbelief, he knows that they're open and all but that's kinda messed up isn't it?

"She asked. And yeah, she just wants to watch, not join in or anything I swear. Think about it anyway, let me know." Daz shrugs and stands up, sliding into his coat and letting himself out of Zoro's place.

"Bye kitten." He smirks through the door and shuts it after him.

"DON'T CALL ME KITTEN!" Zoro screams at the shut door and tries to ignore the sound of Daz's laughter echoing down the hallway.

Zoro growls and falls back on the bed with a huff of displaced breath. He scrubs at his face and scowls at the ceiling, whilst he can't deny that his time with Daz last night was good and certainly satisfying… it didn't scratch that itch that's lurking under his skin.

Tentatively he lets himself think of his best friend. This time it's more… worrying. Instead of the sharp edge of lust that he felt before he's got something altogether more sinister lurking in his mind. His brain flutters and lands on the image of being curled up in this very bed with Sanji, the morning light dappling his bare skin and making his golden hair shine. It's not platonic at all. He tries to wrench himself away from the thought but the wretched thought plays out on its own, he imagines crawling up to Sanji's warmth in bed and lazily kissing him, waking the cook and making him smile.

He gasps and smacks a fist into his head. This is wrong, so very wrong. Sanji is a friend and nothing more. He doesn't want him as a lover, he wants him as he is, he wouldn't sacrifice their relationship for anything in the world.

There's a hammering on his door and Zoro swears and pulls his discarded jeans on and stamps to the door, pulling it open. Daz is there in his hallway.

"What?" he frowns.

"I forgot my phone, get it for me love." Daz smirks teasingly, Zoro heads inside and flips him off as he does so. He searches on the floor and indeed finds Daz's phone almost right away. He returns to the door with it.

"Tomorrow night, I'll come to your place. I'm all yours." Zoro offers, holding up Daz's phone until he agrees. He needs to get this Sanji based itch out of his system and if he has to let Daz bone him to within an inch of his sanity in front of his girlfriend of all people then well, if that's what it'll take to get his brain back to normal then he'll do it.

"Oh… you won't regret this. It'll be the best night of your life." Daz purrs and grabs him, pulling him out into the hallway and ravaging him. Large hands slide into the back of Zoro's loose jeans and grope shamelessly, he shudders happily.

"Tomorrow." Daz agrees, pulling away.

"Heh, sure." Zoro grins and retreats back into his place without a backward glance, kicking the door shut behind him.

He shucks his jeans and drops into the cleaner half of his bed, trying his best to fall into a dreamless sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Sanji is just about done clearing up the Baratie for the night, he's got all of the tables cleaned, the cash is locked away and the lights are dimmed. This job usually goes faster if he has Zoro lurking around waiting for him and helping out but he's not seen Zoro for three days. He's not heard from him or anything. It's not that he hasn't been this long without seeing him before, he's been away for work before and shit but he'd mention it first and usually keep in contact via snarky text messages.

But for three days he's not seen or heard from Zoro at all. No text, no call, nothing. He's starting to get seriously worried. He looks at his phone again just in case.

'Oi asshole, pick up your phone, I'm getting worried that you're dead or something.' That was the text he sent Zoro after the lunchtime rush but he didn't get anything back then either.

He calls Zoro's number, it goes straight to voicemail.

"Zoro, it's me. Look, I'm kind of worried that I'm gonna find out you slipped in the shower and broke your neck or something so I'm gonna come over to yours and use my key to get in. If you want me to leave you alone or not come over then just call or text me or something. Seriously man, just… fucking get in touch." He mutters down the phone and hangs up.

He locks the Baratie up and heads straight to Zoro's. He fingers the key on his keyring that opens Zoro's place, he's never used it but Zoro gave it to him after that one time when he locked himself out and had to get a locksmith out to let him in. Sanji had thought it charmingly domestic at the time and fawned about it in private for some time. This wasn't the situation he'd envisaged using it in.

He makes his way into Zoro's building and jumps up the stairs two at a time, as he reaches Zoro's floor though he hears yelling.

"GODDAMNIT ZORO LET US IN!" One yells, a female voice.

"I WILL KICK THIS DOOR IN IF YOU DON'T LET US IN I SWEAR!"

Sanji peers around the edge of the stairwell and sees Nami and Robin standing in the hallway by Zoro's door, Nami is yelling at it but Robin has turned to look at him.

"I have a key." He says quietly, holding it up and suddenly gaining both of their attention when Robin pulls on one of Nami's pigtails to get her to look.

"Sanji! Of course you'd have a key! Give it here!" Nami gasps, running towards him.

"Wait, when was the last time you heard from him?" He asks, looking at the two ladies as he walks closer to Zoro's door with Nami at his heels.

"I saw him last night but he slammed the door in my face as soon as he opened it. I've not heard anything from him though." Robin answers.

"The rest of us haven't heard from him in like three or four days. I'm really worried." Nami agrees.

Sanji knocks on Zoro's door, feeling the worry coiling in his gut.

"Zoro? It's Sanji, can you let me in?" He calls through the door. No reply comes and when he presses his ear to the door there's no sound coming from inside.

"Okay, I'm opening the door." He calls and slides his key into the lock.

He unlocks the door and pockets the key again as he opens the door.

As he steps in the first thing that hits him is the overwhelming smell of alcohol, it smells like everything in the place is drenched in vodka or something. The second thing that strikes him is the fact that the place is trashed. Furniture is flipped and broken and there are fist sized dents in the walls. Sanji steps inside and feels glass crunch under the sole of his shoe. Cautiously he lifts his foot up and sees that there's a massive lump of clear glass in his shoe. He plucks it out and turns around to see a big stain on the wall with an explosion of glass on the floor around it. There's a crumpled Jack Daniels label in the middle of it that gives Sanji a pretty good idea about what might have been in the bottle.

"Oh god Zoro…" Nami breathes in horror, surveying the room.

Robin doesn't say anything though and instead rushes to Zoro's bed and pulls back the pile of covers to reveal a completely unconscious Zoro underneath them. In Zoro's slack hand is a half empty bottle of sake.

"Well, he's breathing at least." Robin announces, running her hand over Zoro's forehead.

"Why would Zoro do this?" Nami asks, looking around in shock. Sanji doesn't say what he's thinking which is to wonder why Zoro could get this emotional about something and not call him, weren't they friends? Didn't Zoro think that he could trust him?

"Maybe the piece of paper on the table with the big knife sticking out of it might be a clue." Robin points across the room.

Sanji strides across the room, determined to know what put his best friend and secret love into such a state. Nami is softly talking to Zoro and trying to rouse him out of his unconscious state.

Sanji pulls the knife out of the paper and reminds himself to berate Zoro for treating a cooking implement so poorly at a later date. As he pulls the knife free he realises that there are actually two pieces of paper there. He slides the papers towards himself and begins to read.

To his surprise the logo at the top of the first sheet that jumps out at him is for a local school.

"Dear Mr Roronoa,

Due to the following photo being sent to the school and the threat of circulation to students parents we feel that we cannot continue to employ you in your current position. If you insist on conducting yourself in such a depraved manner you should look into an alternative occupation.

With immediate effect your position as part time (20 hrs weekly – flexible) substitute teacher and teaching assistant is terminated on the grounds of gross misconduct.

Your security ID will no longer function at the school and your email account has been terminated. Your possessions will-"

Sanji couldn't read any further due to the massive knife gash in the page. Sanji blinks in shock. Zoro's a teacher? Shit, he never would have guessed that. Or rather Zoro was a teacher, seeing as he's been fired. Sanji can't see the aforementioned photo but there are scraps of a photograph on the floor that Sanji would guess was it.

He pulls the paper apart from the one below that it was embedded in. This one says much the same, that Zoro was fired with immediate effect due to unacceptable behaviour unbefitting of someone in his position and the threat of this mystery photo being circulated. Only this one was from the boy scouts of America, apparently Zoro was a teacher/leader for the local group. Emphasis on the "was" there.

"What is it?" Robin asks, appearing at Sanji's side so suddenly that it makes him jump.

"Zoro's been fired apparently." He answers, handing the papers over.

As Robin holds them up Sanji spots that something else was embedded on the back of the last sheet of paper, held there by the damage from the knife bending the paper around. Curiously he plucks it off of the paper and realises at first touch that it's a photograph. He flips it over and his jaw drops.

Zoro is naked on it but he's not alone. He's on his knees on bed, his chest pinned to the mattress by the large hand of the guy fucking him from behind. Sanji's face flushes scarlet as he takes in the shot of Zoro's dick and the way that his face is pulled into an expressive howl of bliss.

He squeaks guiltily and drops the photo. God, he shouldn't be looking at that! Zoro wouldn't want him to- oh GOD! He scrunches his eyes shut and tries to erase what he's seen but he can't, he's forever going to know what Zoro looks like when he has sex and that's completely not going to help his already unhealthy fixation with Zoro.

Regretfully he slides his eyes open again and peeks at the photo, his heart swells and breaks. Because, yes, Zoro is apparently into guys and if he's wished for that to be so once he's wished for it a thousand times. But his heart is cracking open because evidently the kind of guys that Zoro likes are nothing like Sanji. The guy making Zoro show that gorgeous expression is about twelve fucking foot tall or something and has biceps the size of Sanji's head. Zoro's never going to want him if he likes guys like that. And this is all ignoring the fact that Zoro is obviously spoken for. The sharp ache in Sanji's chest makes him want to cry, he just loves Zoro so damn much and seeing him with someone else makes him hurt so badly.

"Oh no." Robin murmurs, looking at the photo.

"Zoro you idiot, you let someone photograph you." Robin breathes, touching the picture.

"Who did this? Someone did this to him to hurt him, who would do that?" Sanji demands, his pain turning to anger. How dare someone hurt Zoro like this? Someone that Zoro evidently trusted too! If it was the guy in this photo Sanji isn't sure he's going to be able to stop himself from committing murder.

"Go 'way." Zoro slurs from across the other side of the room.

"No, Zoro you need to drink some water, get this alcohol out of your system." Nami orders him sensibly.

"Fff 'm 'wake need t' drink mor'." Zoro replies groggily.

Sanji rips his eyes away from the picture to see Nami trying to wrench the sake bottle out of Zoro's hands without pulling him off of the bed. She's not having much luck, it seems that even when he's barely coherent he's still freakishly strong.

"Let go of that Zoro!" He orders, marching over to the bed and smacking the back of Zoro's hand. In the marimo's startled surprise he lets go of the bottle, the sudden lack of grip on it makes Nami fall backwards onto her ass with the bottle in hand. She hastily gets it away from him.

Zoro looks up at Sanji blearily, his eyes bloodshot red and his face pale and pasty looking. He's clearly not been eating or taking care of himself in any way at all. He's half on and half off of the bed, balancing unsteadily on one hand as he looks up at him.

"Sanji nooo." Zoro whines, reaching towards him with his free hand.

"Can't- no… can' be here. See and then… no…" Zoro whines, reaching for Sanji and grabbing his jeans to haul him closer.

"No, go. Jus' go! You can't see, lost everything else, can't lose you. Can't." Zoro insists desperately and drunkenly as Zoro tries to steer him towards the door and falls off of the bed in the process.

"God Zoro, what are you on about? Get up." He chides, pulling Zoro to his knees. Zoro slumps against him, his head buried in Sanji's neck.

"Don't wan' you to see." Zoro moans against his skin, setting a shower of sparks up Sanji's spine.

"I've already seen you drunk now Zoro, me going won't change that. Come on, we need to get you sobered up. When's the last time that you ate?" He sighs, pulling Zoro to his feet with some difficulty.

"No, can't… see… photo. Can't!" Zoro insists, drunkenly shoving him away.

"Oh boy, how much has he had? I've never seen him like this." Nami murmurs to Robin, looking through the bottles in the kitchen bin. Sanji suspects that there's a lot there.

"The photo?" He frowns. It dawns on him that Zoro means the photo that was attached to Zoro's dismissal letters, Zoro's trying to keep him from seeing because… Zoro thinks he'll lose him? That's what he said wasn't it?

"Zoro, I've seen it already. I don't care, I'm not going anywhere, let's get you something to eat." He insists, moving back in close to Zoro and wrapping his arms around Zoro.

"Sanji…" Zoro whines, shaking against him, his fists balling in the back of Sanji's shirt.

"I've got you." He promises, stroking Zoro's back. He's going to find whoever did this to Zoro and he's going to kill them.

"Robin, does Zoro have any bread or pasta over there? He needs something to soak up this alcohol." He asks, looking over at her.

"He doesn't… but we'll go out and buy some. I think I'll get him some painkillers and sports drinks whilst I'm at it. Come on Nami." Robin nods, tugging on Nami's arm. Sanji walks Zoro back to his bed and drops him on it. Zoro whines and curls up on the covers, drunkenly tugging one over himself.

The girls leave with sympathetic smiles and promises to be back before too long. He sighs and decides that he may as well start to clear up the mess that Zoro's left. As he steps to do so though a hand grabs his leg and Sanji looks down, startled.

Zoro's red rimmed eyes are looking up at him and seeming to plead with him not to go. Sanji steps back and sits down on the edge of the bed. Zoro shuffles up to him and with a thump rests his head on Sanji's thigh. He combs his fingers through Zoro's short tangled and messy hair.

"You're a mess." He says softly, with an affectionate smile.

"I know." Zoro whines drunkenly into Sanji's hip.

"Y'saw it? The..." Zoro asks hesitantly.

"I saw the photo Zoro, I don't care, I'm not leaving." Sanji says, quietly mindful of the hangover that Zoro may well be developing right now.

Zoro doesn't say anything but Sanji feels his hand tighten a little more on the back of his t-shirt. He strokes through Zoro's short green hair, his feelings a fighting mess within him. He loves Zoro, of course he does, he loves him more each time that he sees him and unlike his usual relationships where he builds up this fantasy idea of what someone is like, ideas which fall apart and destroy the few romantic relationships he does have when they turn out not to be like that. With Zoro... with Zoro he's constantly surprised. Every new shade and side of him, every new part, every unexpected weakness and surprising strength... they all just make him care for Zoro more.

He's conflicted because on the one hand he loves Zoro romantically, he has a hot flare of jealousy for that lucky bastard in the photo. But on the other hand he has this feirce protective instinct for the man. Which is stupid, because Zoro is clearly capable of taking care of himself, or usually is, a quick look around the room tells him that Zoro's not so capable right now. He wants to grab Zoro up and keep him somewhere away from the world, away from shitty employers who would fire Zoro for finding out something that he can't help and isn't wrong, away from anyone who would ever hurt him. He wants to hide Zoro underneath himself and snarl at anyone who would dare touch him.

It scares him.

"I haven't been honest with you either Zoro. You shouldn't have felt like you had anything to hide from me because... we're no different. I've had... boyfriends. Lovers, whatever you want to..." Sanji trails up as he notices Zoro looking blearily up at him with wide eyes.

"You're too drunk for this conversation. Go to sleep, idiot." Sanji sighs, stroking Zoro's hair once more before settling the other man off of his lap and back into the bed. He fusses for a moment or two with his duvets before standing up and deciding to fix Zoro's place up.

Sanji starts to clear up. He puts used bottles in bags to throw them out, frankly astounded that Zoro hasn't died of alcohol poisoning from drinking all of this. He sweeps up broken crockery and plaster from the walls and throws that out too.

There is the occasional self-pitying hung-over whine from Zoro's direction when Sanji makes too loud of a clang with glass bottles but other than that the moss head seems fine.

He avoids the photograph on Zoro's kitchen counter, deciding instead to deal with the main room of Zoro's small apartment. Within a reasonably short space of time he's able to get the place looking something closer to presentable, or at least not looking like there's been a bar fight in there within the last 24 hours.

"Sanji, we're back." Robin calls, peeking her head around the door.

"The place looks a little better now." Nami notes, looking around the room.

"It'd be hard to make it worse." Sanji agrees with a sigh and takes the shopping from Robin. He cracks open one of the sports hydration drinks. Despite all of the drinking Zoro's been doing it doesn't look like he's been drinking anything other than alcohol for some time so he's no doubt horribly dehydrated.

"Zoro, wake up. Drink this. It'll help you sober up quicker and stop the hangover being so bad." He orders, shaking Zoro's shoulder and pressing the drink into his hand.

"Noooo." Zoro protests, trying to squirm away in drunken uncoordinated stupor.

"So help me Zoro I will hold you down and pour this down your fucking throat if I have to. DRINK IT." He snaps. Zoro blearily scowls up at him but does what he's been told.

Sanji places the rest of the shopping on the clear space on Zoro's kitchen counter and pops two slices of bread into the toaster. He glances down at the counter and catches sight of Zoro's naked body on the photograph, the way his skin is flushed and slick with sweat as if-

He growls to himself angrily and flips the photo and then puts a packet of crackers on top of it. Goddammit.

"Don't worry my lovelies, I'll take this from here. I'm sure the last thing you two want to do is see this drunken slob flail around all day." Sanji smiles tightly at them, gesturing to the plastered moss head.

"F'k you." Zoro slurs at him.

"Yeah, I don't want him to throw up on me. Call us if you need us though Sanji? I'm just glad he's not dead." Nami sighs.

"He's been fired though. We'll see if we can talk to him when he's a little more sober and see what we can do. I just can't believe that Zoro let someone photograph him like that, he's usually so careful. Which makes me think that he didn't know." Robin frowns, looking across at Zoro who is now curled up under a pile of duvets. Or at least Sanji presumes that he's under there, he's not seen him leave and that's roughly where he was before he apparently decided to pull all of his covers over him. Sanji sees the barely touched sports drink on the floor and scowls. He will make him drink it.

He frowns, he's heard about how awful some organisations can be about finding out that they have gay staff, especially organisations that deal with kids as Zoro's apparently do. Even so he's pretty sure that it's illegal to fire someone on that basis, but he doesn't know if that photo complicates things. What the hell happened?

Nami hums in consideration and picks the photo up from under where Sanji had angrily stored it.

"You think this guy photographed him without Zoro knowing? I mean... how? He's a little... occupied." Nami comments, flushing as she looks at the picture.

"There's all sorts of ways that you can photograph someone without them realising. I think I might go and find him and ask him just how this photograph was taken and how it was sent to Zoro's employers with a threatening letter." Robin says, her tone icy and threatening. Both Sanji and Nami look at her in surprise.

"You know this guy?" he asks, his eyes wide.

"Yeah. Daz Bones. He works at the university with me, I introduced the two of them years ago because Daz had a project that needed Zoro. He came to the evening where Zoro brought everyone he knew to your restaurant. I didn't know they were like this though." Robin answers, her gaze cold as she plucks the photograph from Nami's hands.

"Let's go have a few words with him, hm?" Nami suggests, cracking her knuckles dangerously.

"Agreed." Robin nods.

"Zoro always used to insist that his method was better. That he'd have friends and lovers and keep them separate, then no one could ever break his heart. I always told him it was stupid." Nami adds softly, looking over to Zoro's bed. He's so messed up over this, Sanji wonders if it's a broken heart or just broken trust that's done this to Zoro. Perhaps he's just grieving over his lost jobs but either way he's hurting and Sanji wants to fix it and get revenge for Zoro.

"You didn't know… about Zoro did you?" Nami asks him, jolting Sanji out of his train of thought. He considers pretending that he doesn't know what Nami means, but he doesn't want to insult her intelligence like that.

"No, he never told me." Sanji says shaking his head.

"Look after him, we have someone to track down." Nami orders and Sanji smiles agreeably at her. The two ladies leave on their clandestine mission and Sanji sets himself to the task of cooking what he can for Zoro with what equipment Zoro hasn't broken.

He manages to scrape together a passable risotto, something easy on the stomach with stock and vegetables to get Zoro's system running again. He'd never serve it at the Baratie, Zeff would brain him with a frying pan if he caught him trying to, but then he'd have more to work with there.

He takes two bowls of it to Zoro's bed and sets them down on the bedside table. He shakes Zoro awake and presses the bowl into his hands.

"You're going to eat all of this." He states. He doesn't ask, he's telling Zoro. His body needs the fuel to get rid of this alcohol and he will get even if Sanji has to shove it in his mouth himself.

Thankfully it doesn't come to that. Zoro sits up and eats quietly, his shoulder pressed to Sanji's and when he's done Zoro drops his head to Sanji's shoulder and just sits there. Zoro's not exactly a physically affectionate person usually but if he does make contact Sanji can usually tell a lot from it.

"Stay?" Zoro asks, whisper quiet.

Sanji nods. He can't deny that voice. Zoro shuffles back, still a little drunk and pulls Sanji still fully clothed into bed with him. Sanji shoves down the ache in his heart and pulls Zoro close and lets him fall asleep. After a while Sanji is pulled under with him.


	7. Chapter 7

Zoro doesn't so much wake up as he does react to the hangover that slams right into his frontal lobe. He rolls onto his side and he swears that he can feel his brain slap to the side of his skull and punish him with a wave of pain. A warm body comes into contact with his, startling Zoro. He cautiously unglues his eyes and opens them wary of bright lights, thankfully the room is dim in the evening light, but not so dim that he can't see Sanji sleeping next to him.

The blonde's features are relaxed and slack with sleep, his mouth slightly parted and his hair all tousled. He's sleeping on his side facing Zoro. With a wave of shame he remembers that he'd begged Sanji to stay with him and pulled him into bed, it'd seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now it seems pathetically needy.

Sanji sighs softly and his eyes flutter behind closed lids. Zoro feels a wave of something powerful rise in his chest and he realises that this is so very close to the fantasy that he'd had about his best friend. After Daz had fucked his brains out the first time he'd thought of Sanji and instead of his mind sliding to sex he'd imagined something entirely more domestic, he'd imagined waking up with Sanji and kissing him awake. It had been a feeling like love that his brain had conjured instead of one of lust. That feeling hasn't gone anywhere, despite all that he went through with Daz this hasn't left him at all, the whole thing was pointless.

He wants to reach out and touch Sanji, to stroke his cheek, to lean in just so and kiss him awake.

FUCK. He sits up sharply and rests his head in his hands. Sanji is his best friend, what on earth is he thinking?! He's already lost everything professionally, the last thing he needs to do is to make some stupid move on Sanji and lose his best friend too.

Sanji stirs behind him and after a second Zoro feels a warm hand rub the small of his back.

"You feeling okay?" Sanji enquires, his voice deep with sleep and sending electric shivers down Zoro's insides. He grunts in response, not trusting himself to speak. Sanji sighs and rolls over. After a second he sits back up again and leans around Zoro to dangle to sports drink in his face.

"Drink this or so help me I will... ah... drown you in it." Sanji orders him, interrupted part-way through with a yawn. Zoro takes the bottle from the blonde and Sanji rests his head sleepily on the back of Zoro's shoulder.

"Mmm, what time is it? I'm not used to going to sleep and waking up in the night. Once I'm out I'm out." Sanji mumbles. Zoro drinks and doesn't answer, but instead manages to pick Sanji's phone up off of the floor by his feet and pass it to the blonde.

"Half twelve. We've been asleep for three hours. Well, I have. You've been sleeping longer off and on I think." Sanji notes sleepily.

"How do you feel?" Sanji asks, his hand lazily winding around Zoro's side, Zoro isn't even sure that Sanji's awake enough to realise that he's doing it. But damn him to hell he likes this, he wants it.

"Hungover." He says shortly.

Sanji removes himself from Zoro's person and climbs out of his bed. He pauses on the edge of the bed to put his shoes on as there's still a few chunks of broken glass about the place. He then disappears out of the room, only to return shortly after with salvaged painkillers. He drops them into Zoro's hand and then wanders off into the kitchen. Zoro takes his painkillers and get up to follow Sanji.

As he does he notices that the place looks a lot cleaner than it did when he was last awake and sober enough to move about. He's pretty certain that Sanji's been cleaning up after him. A flush of guilt rises on his cheeks, Sanji shouldn't have to deal with this from him.

He spots that awful photo of himself on the kitchen surface, thankfully Sanji isn't looking at it right now, he's opening a new trash bag and plucking other things from Zoro's counter that are either empty or broken and putting them into it. Zoro snarls to himself and screws the photo up, he thought he'd ripped it up, the other letter must have enclosed one of the godawful photos too! Sanji looks up at him with a concerned expression and offers him the trash bag. Zoro throws the photo in there angrily and grits his teeth.

"I don't want to talk about it." He stays abruptly as Sanji looks like he's about to say something. Sanji shrugs and drops the subject.

He hates the idea that Sanji has even seen that fucking photograph but he knows that he has and despite himself and the disgust that he feels both for that picture but also for these... feelings that he's having for Sanji all of a sudden he wants to know how Sanji reacted to seeing it.

A bang on the door startles them both.

"Oi, Zoro, Sanji! Open up!" Nami's voice yells through the door.

Zoro heads over to the door and opens it. He has vague drunken memories of Nami and Robin being there earlier, of Nami stealing his booze off of him and Robin's cold fingers on his skin as she tried to look after him. He opens it and expects to see just Nami, or likely Nami and Robin together. What he doesn't expect to see is Daz behind his door, held in place by either elbow by Robin and Nami.

His jaw drops and he's too hung over and shocked to stop Nami and Robin hauling Daz in.

"Zoro, you're okay." Daz sighs, relieved, reaching out to touch Zoro. He leaps back, suddenly aware enough to really react, Daz's hand just grazes his cheek though.

"THE HELL I AM!" He yells, instantly regretting it from the hungover throb behind his eyes.

"I've been calling you and-" Daz starts, reaching for Zoro again. Zoro takes another step back out of the larger man's reach. He's always so fucking touchy and the last thing he wants right now is for Daz to have a hold of him at all.

"And I've not been answering, so you can fuck OFF. Get OUT!" He orders, jabbing a finger at the door.

"Kitten-" Daz begins.

Zoro sees red. The next thing he knows he's punched Daz hard enough for his head to snap sharply to the side and he's kicking and clawing at him as Daz grabs him by the back of the shirt and hauls him back out of range. Fuck Daz and his freakish strength and size!

"ZORO!" Daz barks at him in his best Dom voice, but Zoro isn't his lover anymore, not ever again and he's not going to just do what Daz says. He only ever played along because Daz was great in bed and now that he has no intentions of ever getting in bed with the man ever again he's not going to be agreeable. A flash of black goes by Zoro's eyes and suddenly Daz drops Zoro to the ground. Sanji is suddenly between him and Daz and he realises numbly that somehow Sanji kicked Daz in the arm hard enough to make him let go, he has no idea how on earth Sanji kicked that high!

"I think you'd better leave." Sanji hisses, his body visibly shaking with anger and his voice betraying murderous intent. Something about seeing Sanji trying to stand up for him stills a part of Zoro and he comes to his senses a little more again.

"And who the hell are you?" Daz demands, rounding on Sanji.

"The guy who's going to kick your ass if you don't do what Zoro says and LEAVE." Sanji snarls.

"Hah, you? You're tiny!" Daz laughs and Sanji bristles angrily.

"Then it'll be all the more humiliating for you won't it? Now you can leave through the door or the window, your choice." the blonde growls angry.

Daz seems to decide that Sanji isn't worth the attention that he's giving him so instead focuses on Zoro again.

"What is wrong with you? I just got a whole bunch of drunk, screaming voicemails about how I'd betrayed you and then you never picked up when I tried to call you back. What's wrong?" Daz asks, looking at him.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fucking photograph that your psycho girlfriend sent to my employers which got me fired from both jobs! Maybe THAT. NOW LEAVE." He demands, pointing angrily at the door.

"Wait, girlfriend?" Sanji blinks in confusion.

"Open relationship, or that was the idea. Daz kindly didn't mention that his girlfriend had a problem with me, the kind that leads to me being FIRED!" he explains, flicking the surprised blonde a glance. Sanji shoots Daz the filthiest and most disgusted look that Zoro's ever seen at that explanation.

"What photograph? What are you talking about? Paula would never do something like that." Daz blinks in stupid confusion. Sanji disappears from view and Zoro knows just what he's going to get. Sure enough Sanji reappears with the crumpled photograph in hand and proceeds to shove it in Daz's face, though he nearly has to stand on tiptoes to do so.

"I don't remember anyone else in the room." Zoro growls darkly.

Paula had watched them the entire time and then it'd kind of creeped Zoro out because she didn't seem to be into the whole thing. Daz had pitched it like she wanted to be really voyeuristic but when it was actually happening her gaze was cold and dispassionate. The only way Zoro had been able to enjoy himself at all was just to shut his eyes and pretend that she wasn't there at all, which of course gave her the perfect opportunity to take that kind of a picture.

"Now take your fucking photo and get out!" Sanji snaps. Daz growls and crumples it in his fist, he glares down at Sanji in a way that Zoro can tell means that he's had more than enough talk back out of Sanji.

"You didn't tell me who the fuck you were, pipsqueak." Daz growls menacingly, leaning over Sanji with all his towering height.

"If it's an introduction you want, I can always introduce you to the sole of my shoe again." he threatens, clearly not cowed by Daz's looming size.

Something like recognition flickers across Daz's face and he shoots Zoro a questioning look, with a tilt of his head to the blonde. Zoro doesn't catch on until Daz starts to talk.

"Oh wait, you must be-" Daz starts and Zoro suddenly realises that Daz KNOWS about Sanji. He'd draped himself across Daz's body after sex and told him all about Sanji, about the things he'd been thinking and feeling about him lately, that he'd even started having fantasies about the blonde.

Daz and his fucking girlfriend had taken everything from him, or near enough. If Daz opens his mouth and blabs to Sanji then Zoro really will lose everything. No way will Sanji stick around if he finds out what his best friends has secretly been thinking about him, Sanji would run a mile!

"Sanji! You need to leave, NOW!" Zoro barks.

"Yeah, you heard him you- wait. What?" Sanji blinks, looking over at him having just realised that it was his name that he'd just said, not Daz's.

"Do I need to ask you again, Sanji?" Zoro challenges and Sanji's expression flashes hurt for a moment.

"No... I'll just... call me if you need anything, yeah? Even if it's just to take the trash out." Sanji adds, shooting a venomous glare at Daz.

"I will." Zoro nods.

Sanji chews on his lip for a second, clearly not wanting to go but not wanting to deny the request either. Daz looks smug. Sanji flips Zoro ex-lover off and walks out of Zoro's flat with a concerned look over his shoulder to Zoro.

"I can see why you like the pretty little spitfire, he's got a mouth on him though." Daz notes disapprovingly and Zoro sincerely hopes that Sanji is out of earshot right now. He does notice Robin and Nami's faces show identical smirks though, and he realises that they now know too. Great.

"This isn't a polite chat, fucker and Sanji isn't the topic of conversation. Your psycho girlfriend is." Zoro growls angrily.

"Look, even if Paula did take this photo she wouldn't use it to hurt you. You've got the wrong person." Daz says patronisingly.

Zoro snarls and stomps over to his bed, thankfully his place is small enough that it's not far. He picks his phone up off of the ground and notes with some small displeasure that the screen is slightly cracked in the corner. He turns it on for the first time in days and the screen all but blows up with texts and missed calls.

He slides down the screen and sees all of the messages in his voicemail, he's looking for a particular one but notices that there are a whole bunch there from Sanji. He tries to select the one he's thinking of but instead his finger slips and he hits Sanji's first voicemail.

"Hey, it's me." Sanji's voice is soft and familiar and sends something hot flushing in Zoro's gut.

"Where'd you run off to? I've never seen you haul ass so fast and I see you run every morning. I don't even know which way you went and I can't get back into the movie after chasing you like that. I hope you're not sick or something. Call me I guess? Or you can tell me what was up at breakfast tomorrow. Bye." Sanji's voice comes from the phone.

A flash of guilt shoots through him, he'd run right out of the movie theatre to find Daz, all because he couldn't stop thinking of Sanji like that. All that time his best friend had been worrying about him and he'd not even had the decency to let the man know he was okay.

He shakes it off and selects the next message. This was from the day after he had gone over to Daz's and Paula had watched.

"Stay away from Daz, he's mine. Clearly the two of you haven't gotten the message, so maybe this will get through to you. You'll have lots of time to think about that with all the free time you'll be having now. If you come anywhere near Daz I'll send those photos out to all of those parents regardless of if you get fired. This is your only warning, stay away from my boyfriend." Paula's voice comes from Zoro's phone.

He looks up at the stunned Daz challengingly.

Daz doesn't say a word but his fists tense. Zoro is struck by the idea that Daz really didn't know, didn't know that Paula had done this. Didn't know about the photographs or the blackmail. Zoro however doesn't care. He can't ever trust Daz after this and he wants him gone.

Daz turns on his heel and storms out of Zoro's apartment, finally. Zoro breathes a sigh of relief.

"So... you do like Sanji then." Nami says after a long moment.

"OUT! BOTH OF YOU!" Zoro snaps and shoves the two laughing women out of his flat. He must be looking a little better for them to feel like they can tease him like that.

Nevertheless he shuts the door behind them and walks back to his bed and falls into it. It smells like Sanji's skin. Then, because he apparently hates himself he goes through Sanji's voicemails.

"Oi loser, you didn't show up for breakfast. I better see you later, you owe me for bailing on me last night."

"Hey, if you're sick or something let me know, I can bring food around for you. Let me know before I go, yeah? I can bring you something from the Baratie."

"Okay, I'm starting to think that you're ignoring me. Did I... did I do something to piss you off? I mean I know you're always a surly motherfucker but if you're actually mad at me you should let me know, bastard. Uh. I mean... fuck. Just call me okay? I know this is getting pathetic but I'm actually worried about your dumb ass. Okay. I'm hanging up now before I can say anything else dumb."

"Fuck, just PICK UP ALREADY!"

"Zoro, it's me. Look, I'm kind of worried that I'm gonna find out you slipped in the shower and broke your neck or something so I'm gonna come over to yours and use my key to get in. If you want me to leave you alone or not come over then just call or text me or something. Seriously man, just… fucking get in touch."

Guilt coils hotly in Zoro's stomach, along with a fluttering feeling from the fact that Sanji cared enough to get that worked up for him. There's messages from his other friends as well. Pleas to get in touch and irritable texts at his lack of reply. He throws his phone over the side of the bed and drains the bottle of the drink Sanji gave him before curling into the side of the bed that Sanji had been sleeping in. A blonde hair tickles his nose and Zoro squeezes his eyes shut and feels like shit.

He's hungover, betrayed, unemployed and miserable. He curls up under the duvet and allows himself to imagine that the others had never come over, that Sanji was still here with him in bed. Perhaps even another life where Sanji lived with him because they were together.

A spark of denial flares up in him. That voice that berates him, reminds him that he doesn't do relationships and that even if he did he'd never have one with Sanji. The voice reminds him that he'd never risk all that he has with Sanji for something like that, and that Sanji was probably straight as an arrow. Something in the back of his mind throws doubt on that though, and though he can't remember when that perception of Sanji changed he does wonder if perhaps Sanji might not be straight.

He shakes his head and tries to sleep. It was just wishful thinking. Still, he can wish. He'll let himself wish that things were different, just for tonight.

He wakes up feeling significantly less hungover although a lot hungrier than when he went to sleep. He just has a slight throb behind his eyes that alerts him to the fact that he's hungover at all. It's late in the morning but it doesn't matter as, hey, he doesn't have a job anymore.

He rolls over onto his side and picks up his phone from the floor. There are messages from Nami and Robin, asking if he's okay and that he should call them. Nami also adds that she wants to hear everything about his feeling for Sanji. Fuck.

Speaking of Sanji there aren't any messages from him. He wonders guiltily if he hurt his feelings last night. He has two voicemails though. The first is from Daz.

"Zoro, I know you might not listen to this but I needed to talk to you. I'm so sorry about Paula, really I had no idea that she was this unhappy about our arrangement. It doesn't matter anyway, we're not together anymore, she clearly isn't who I thought she was. Don't worry though, I got all of the copies off of her and the negatives. She can't send that photograph to anyone else. And I told her that if she does have any copies left well... I've got some photos of her that I'm sure her boss wouldn't approve of. I know I can't undo what she did but she can't do it again. I'm sorry."

Zoro sighs, he's never going back to Daz. He's not even going to call him. But he's relieved to know that those photos can't get sent on any more than they have been.

"Mr Roronoa, this is Kalifa." The message starts. Zoro bolts upright in bed, that's the headmistress of his school! "We spoke with your lawyer today and he made a few good points, including a threat of legal action. You are a good teacher and it would be a shame to lose you. So as much as I'd like to see that cute blonde lawyer of yours again, if you call him off I'm sure that we can work something out. The students have missed you, if you come to the school on Monday we can see about getting you re-instated. I'll expect to hear from you before then. Goodbye."

Cute. Blonde. Lawyer.

Zoro throws himself in the shower and gets dressed at the speed of light. He all but sprints to the Baratie and is out of breath when he gets there.

"Zoro." Sanji greets him with a surprised smile. Zoro makes his way over to Sanji's counter and slaps his hand down on the surface before leaning over.

"Cute. Blonde. Lawyer?" He repeats wide eyed.

"I don't have a lawyer, much less a cute blonde one. You're the only- what did you do?" He asks.

"It's amazing the things people will believe you're qualified to do with a little insinuation and a nice suit." Sanji purrs with a smile.

"Tell me she offered you your job back." Sanji adds with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, I have to go in on Monday. What did you do? How did you..." Zoro questions numbly, he might still be too hung over to deal with this.

"I just went in there and pointed out a few legal cases and laws that prohibit people from firing people for things like that. I may have made a few insinuations about expensive lawsuits and the school reputation and the media involvement. She backed down pretty quickly." Sanji shrugged.

"You got me my job back." He remarks in a kind of numb awe as the fact settles in. He's not going to have to leave the kids at school forever! And he's not going to be completely broke and homeless from having no job!

"Yeah, I tried with the scouts but that seems like an organisation wide problem that-ACK!" Sanji yelps as Zoro grabs him into the tightest hug ever. Sanji fixed the apparently unfixable and here he is apologising for not being able to fix every single thing!

"Gah! Zoro! As much as I appreciate the thanks I need to aaagh- breathe!" Sanji squeaks next to Zoro's ear. Zoro reluctantly drops him and notes that the Baratie's patrons are staring at them.

"I don't know how to thank you!" He breathes in awe.

He watches in fascination as Sanji's cheeks flush red and the one visible blue eye darts down out of embarrassment.

"You don't have to. I wanted to help. Besides, you helped me out remember? You gave me the Baratie back. You should have called me, I'd have fixed this sooner." Sanji sighs and he feels like a jerk for leaving Sanji out of the loop for this whole time.

"Still... thank you." Zoro says softly.

Sanji's mouth curves up into a smile and for a split second Zoro has the almost overwhelming urge to kiss him. He shoves it down and ignores it, choosing instead to beam gratefully at his best friend.

"Shit, you're welcome. Now sit your ass down, I'm making you lunch." Sanji declares, apparently deciding that that's the end of it.

Zoro grins and takes his usual seat gratefully as Sanji starts on making him something amazing.


	8. Chapter 8

Zoro is walking around Sanji's apartment barefoot and perfect and it makes Sanji's chest ache to look at him. Zoro is everything he's ever wanted and the only problem is him, he's not the kind of person that Zoro wants. Daz is. His stomach clenches painfully as Zoro smiles at him, he smiles back but it feels forced, it hurts.

He's never wanted anything so badly in his life, he's desperate for Zoro, he's the piece of himself that he's missing and he's been without him his entire life and having him so close but not close enough is destroying him.

"Hey, are you alright cook? You seem off." Zoro frowns at him, getting close as Sanji tries to focus on his cooking instead.

"I'm fine." He lies and smiles at Zoro.

"You don't seem fine cook, spit it out already." Zoro demands, puling him backwards from the hob and taking his sauce off of the burner so Sanji doesn't have an easy excuse to return. Zoro manhandles him in front of him and makes him look at the other man's face.

Sanji chews at his lip and represses the urge to kiss Zoro. He's sure that some of his anguish must show on his face because Zoro frowns down at him.

He shouldn't be doing this now, Zoro's got his first day back at work tomorrow and he needs to be on top form, he doesn't need to be worrying about Sanji. He has to get a grip.

"Cook, whatever this is, you know everything about me. I'm hardly going to be annoyed at you letting me shoulder some of your problems for a change, am I?" Zoro points out with a grin and pokes at Sanji's chest.

Sanji backs up against the counter and rests his hands on it, trying to quell their shaking. He can feel the secret inside him clawing and trying to get out. How much worse can it be just to tell Zoro than to keep this in? Even if Zoro doesn't feel the same way he'll... understand. Right?

"Promise me you won't react badly." He pleads, looking up at Zoro desperately. Zoro tilts his head curiously and smiles at Sanji.

"You're my best friend Sanji, come on." Zoro laughs gently, imploring him to go on with his confession.

Sanji squeezes his eyes shut. Right. Zoro was his best friend. Zoro got him the Baratie back and Zoro wouldn't judge him for loving him, he likes guys too. So... he... fuck, he should just say. What if Zoro was as anxious about this as him, what if he was secretly hoping that Sanji would say something first? What if they both feel the same and they're just wasting time trying not to spill the secret.

"Yeah. Okay, just..." Sanji nods with a nervous breath and steps into Zoro's space. Zoro's arms come to his sides and Sanji takes a moment and rests his head on Zoro's shoulder. Zoro doesn't do this a lot but Sanji has no more favourite place than right here in Zoro's arms.

"Oi, trust me, idiot." Zoro says with a friendly amount of scorn in his voice.

Right. Okay. Now or never.

Sanji chews his bottom lip for a second before taking a steeling breath and tilting back a little. Zoro looks down at him curiously, stupid idiot, there's barely an inch between them and always Zoro manages to make him feel so much shorter!

There's not much distance between them and it's surprisingly easy for Sanji to lean in and close it. He presses his lips to Zoro's and feels the other man's warmth flood through him him. Zoro's lips move under him with a surprised gasp and Sanji presses a little more insistently, changing the angle slightly but still keeping the kiss relatively chaste.

He pulls back quickly and looks up nervously at Zoro who is staring at him with wide, shocked eyes. Zoro's hands tighten at Sanji's sides and for one second Sanji thinks that he's going to pull him back in again, but no, Zoro's just trying to keep him right there and stop him from moving again. To... stop him from kissing him again.

"What?" Zoro asks with wide surprised eyes. He hadn't expected that, but... but he's not saying no.

Hell there's no way this isn't coming on too strong so he may as well go all in.

"I love you." Sanji says quietly, though he may as well have screamed it for how loud it sounds in the room.

"What. No. You can't." Zoro insists, suddenly releasing Sanji and backing away from him.

"I don't date, you know I don't. I've talked about it, you know that even Daz and I weren't- why would you do this?" Zoro says and the words cut Sanji.

He doesn't try to get back into Zoro's space, he'd... sort of expected this. Zoro had mentioned before how he keeps people separate and Nami and Robin had both mentioned it in his presence. Were they trying to warn him? He should have listened.

"Sanji you're my best friend but that's it." Zoro says flatly, leaving no room for argument.

Sanji winces but nods. That's... fair enough he supposes. Zoro watches him carefully but seeing that Sanji isn't about to make any more moves on him he relaxes a little and just frowns at him.

"This is what you've been so nervous about?" the other man questions.

"Yeah." He admits with a sigh. It's not out of character though, no one's ever been as into him as he was to them. And he adores Zoro with every cell in his body, it shouldn't surprise him that Zoro isn't the slightest bit interested, after all he's seen Zoro's kind of guy. But he'd hoped that maybe their emotional connection could make him a contender, that maybe Zoro would overlook his physical inadequacies for what was in his heart.

He looks up at Zoro to see that Zoro isn't watching him, Zoro's staring at Sanji's sauce like it's telling him the secrets of the universe.

"Shit..." Zoro says and Sanji doesn't think that he even meant to say it.

"This is why you've been getting close to me all this time isn't it? Because you wanted this. I thought... I thought we were friends." Zoro says sharply, looking up at him. Sanji's panic senses kick in. No, no, no, this can't happen.

"No! I'm your friend I just... I have other feelings for you too, that's all. I didn't get close to you just so I could-" Sanji cuts himself off. That's sort of a lie. He'd been attracted to Zoro physically before he'd been emotionally interested, when Zoro first walked into his work he'd already been wishing to drag him to bed.

He swears that Zoro can read his mind with the way that he's looking at him in horror.

"I- I need to go." Zoro says backing away and heading for the door.

"No, Zoro please! It wasn't like that! I can take no for an answer, please, you're my best friend I can't lose you." He begs, catching hold of the back of Zoro's coat as he puts it on.

"You did this, you KNOW I don't mix friends and- you put yourself in that category. Let me go, I don't... please don't call me." Zoro says softly, pulling from Sanji's grip and escaping quickly out of his door. Sanji can hear him quickly rushing down the stairs and away from him.

"No..." He whines, clutching his head in his hands.

"You stupid idiot! Stupid, stupid!" He shouts at himself, cracking himself on the head with his hands as the tears fall. He's lost him.

Sanji awakes in the dark, his face wet from crying. His mind immediately goes to Zoro. He sits up with a gasp and wonders if perhaps it could have just been a dream. Did... he dream that? He rushes out into the kitchen and sees the open bottle of wine that he had and Zoro's empty beer bottles. There's washing up in the sink and two of everything out there. Shit.

He rushes to his phone, his eyes streaming again and dials Zoro's number by heart.

"Please please please." He chants under his breath. Eventually Zoro picks up.

"Sanji?" Zoro croaks down the line, sounding barely awake at all.

"Why the fuck are you calling? It's... early as balls." Zoro groans at him.

"Tell... tell me you didn't come over last night, tell me that was a nightmare. Please." He begs. Please let it have been a dream. But... but the wine and the beer... the washing... it was all real.

"I did come over last night, how did you forget that? So why are you calling me?" Zoro growls at him.

Sanji gasps as the sob hits his throat and he hangs up. Fuck. It was real, he hadn't been dreaming. He'd... he'd confessed and kissed Zoro and... and Zoro had told him never to speak to him again, never to call. He'd lost everything. He grabs his pillow to his face and sobs for what feels like forever, he feels empty, hollow and sick.

His front door shuts with a loud click and Sanji ignores it, maybe Zoro called Zeff to come check on him. Pity, just what he needs. His bedroom door creaks open and Sanji hears the shuffle of clothing. He peeks up to see Zoro kicking his jeans off and peeling his shirt off with a flex of abs. Wait. What?

"You're a mess." Zoro groans sleepily and climbs into his bed.

"The hell kind of dream did you have? And if you're wondering if I'm coming over to do this like hell I'm going back to sleep at mine, you owe me a bed at least." Zoro grumbles and shuffles under the covers.

"What're you doing here?" Sanji hiccups out.

"Shut up and tell me about your dream. Because I know you claim that you burnt the sauce like that but that's an overdramatic reaction even for you. What'd you dream about last night? I'm not dead, obviously, so what happened?" Zoro asks and hauls Sanji a little closer, Sanji stiffens and refuses to go. Zoro gives up and just looks at him in the dark, eyes wide and concerned.

"You... you didn't leave last night? You didn't... we... I... you said you never wanted to speak to me again." Sanji hiccups and scrubs at his face.

"Yeah that didn't happen. We had dinner, you had a lot of wine and you fell asleep halfway through your shitty movie so I dropped you in here and went home. You woke up enough to get changed and I guess fell asleep. I didn't say that." Zoro insists.

Sanji gasps, that explains the mess in the kitchen. It was... half true then? So he hadn't ruined everything! Or maybe the gods had shown mercy and given him another chance to not fuck this up.

"Thank god." Sanji breathes, dropping his face into his pillow.

"Calm down." Zoro says gently and rubs at Sanji's back. He finds himself relaxing into Zoro's touch.

"It's okay. Trust me, idiot." Zoro assures him. His voice so like before that Sanji flinches.

Zoro must feel it because he pauses. He sighs a second or two and starts again.

"I don't know what you dreamt that you'd said or done to make me abandon you in your dream but I wouldn't. Your my best friend, I'm not going anywhere. And even if I promised you that in your dream, I mean it right now." he says gently and rubs small circles between Sanji's shoulder blades.

"Okay, think about it rationally. I know dreams feel real, I've had enough nightmares to know but just think it through ok? Think about everything you've done for me and everything I've done for you, what could possibly make me go after that?" Zoro tries instead.

He could confess his love, that'd about do it. He does not say that. He will never say that. He stays silent.

"Just what did you dream about? What made me...?" Zoro asks, his question trailing off and hanging in the air between them.

Sanji stays silent, he's not going to say. Not after that dream, for all he knows it's a prophetic dream.

"Okay. That's fair. I didn't trust you with my secret so... I can't really..." Zoro mutters, taking his hand back and despite what Zoro says he sounds a little hurt.

"I don't care about that though, I hate Daz but I don't give a shit that he's a guy." Sanji mumbles, turning his head to look up at Zoro.

It's a lie though, he does care. He cares because it means he's not Zoro's type, that even if he was Zoro wouldn't be in a relationship with him because Zoro doesn't do relationships. It must show on his face though because Zoro's eyes widen and he sits up a little sharply and looks down at Sanji carefully.

"I don't care that he's a guy, I don't care that you like guys. I have no negative feelings about you and guys at all. Get back here." Sanji groans and pulls Zoro back down. Zoro relaxes a little and does so.

"But the fact that it was Daz? Or what Daz and I were doing...?" Zoro asks suspiciously.

"Don't care about the open relationship thing either, I mean, I couldn't do that but I don't care." he answers. How could someone just let the person they loved be with other people like that? Though, clearly Daz's girlfriend couldn't if the action she took against Zoro was any indication.

"But that it was casual..." Zoro frowns. Ah. Zoro has him there.

"It's not that I care about that, or that I'm judging. I just don't understand that." Sanji answers honestly and sits up in bed. He needs to explain, he owes Zoro an explanation but he's not sure that he can look at him and give it.

"I don't see why you'd avoid love. I... I want so badly for someone to love me Zoro you don't even-" He shakes his head and starts again.

"I've had relationships before and they've always ended badly. They always leave and I always love them more than they love me. I just... I want to find someone who feels for me what I do for them. It hurts so badly to care about someone and not have them care as much. And it's worse the more I feel. I don't know what's wrong with me that no one else ever wants me as much." Sanji says quietly into the darkness.

"I've had girlfriends cheat on me or just... decide that they're not into me. I've really fallen for someone before but the hours of my job meant that they- he said that it was too much and-" Sanji jolts when he realises that he just slipped and said he. He'd mentioned it when Zoro was drunk but he'd been 99% sure that Zoro didn't remember. There's a silence in the room and then Zoro's hand slides against his back and resumes rubbing in slow circles, this time on Sanji's lower back.

"Shit, sorry. I- fuck. I just want that so much you know? Just to feel like someone... it hurts to bad to know that you don't mean that much to someone when they have that much of you. And then- and then someone like you just avoids the whole thing." He laughs, bitter.

"You're not really convincing me to start. Why would I deliberately let someone make me feel like that?" Zoro reasons.

Sanji turns around and looks down at Zoro, the fucker is actually serious!

"Fucking- you idiot. You're not me! I'm... I'm too clingy, my job eats up my life, I fall too hard too fast for people and I can't manage to keep my mouth shut! You know how many partners I've pissed off because I take things too far? The first time I MET you I bitched you out on the day someone you loved had died and threw you out onto the street for kicks. That's who I am. That's what's wrong with me just... all of it!" Sanji exclaims.

"But you... you're all tough on the outside and sweet inside, you care about the people you love and you'd do anything for people. I mean, you've over here at three in the morning when you have somewhere important to be tomorrow all because I'm a mess. You're the kind of guy people fall for, if you actually dated someone they'd love you. Anyone with a heart would love you so much... you don't even know." Sanji breathes and god it's true. He loves Zoro so much his heart can't even hold it all. But shit, he can't tell Zoro that. He doesn't... he doesn't need that again.

He shakes his head and sits back, his face in his hands.

"You could have what I want. So... to see you just deciding not to... I don't know. It's your choice man, and I know love hurts but not all of us get a choice about it. Hah. But maybe you've got the right idea, maybe I should be more like you and just... stay out of it." He curls up around his knees.

"You're the biggest idiot I know. You're so fucking stupid. You got all of your other flaws wrong but you forgot to mention that you're a giant moron." Zoro groans and hauls him back down against the mattress. Sanji looks up at Zoro in startled surprise and there's something powerful and possessively angry in Zoro's eyes. He knows that Zoro doesn't like it if he puts himself down but it's true. Or perhaps Zoro's planning on hunting down his exes and enacting revenge, he's certainly got that look on.

"Stop dating other idiots who don't appreciate you." Zoro snarls.

"I don't have any choice." Sanji sniffles and looks mournfully at Zoro.

"You need to sleep, you're too damn emotional. I've got work tomorrow... today, and you're supposed to be making me breakfast and you can't do that if you've been awake all night hating yourself and sobbing like a fourteen year old girl." the other man insists and hauls him close. Zoro's bare arms come around him and Sanji finds his head on Zoro's chest.

"I'm not a fourteen year old girl." He protests.

"That's why this is sad." Zoro chuckles in the dark and winds his fingers into Sanji's hair.

"Fuck you. You're an awful bastard and I hate you." Sanji sniffs and curls against Zoro's warm skin, it's better than telling the man he loves him.

"You're insufferable. Quit your bitching and sleep, idiot." Zoro retorts and strokes his fingers through Sanji's hair.

Sanji's breath catches a little and he tries to even it out. Zoro's in his bed with him, naked except for his boxers and he's pressed up against him completely. He's never going to be like this romantically with Zoro... but... this is... nice. He presses himself closer to Zoro and whines quietly, his heart aches for this because it's so nearly right but still not what he needs.

It has to do though, and it's more than he deserves.

He's not sure when he drifts off but Zoro stays stroking through his hair and touching his skin gently until he does.


	9. Chapter 9

Contrary to the popular opinion of some people like Nami, Zoro isn't stupid. He might not be the mastermind into other people's thoughts like Robin seemed to be, and he couldn't sneak into your head and steal secrets like Nami could... but he wasn't an idiot. He strokes his hand down Sanji's back, the soft cotton of the cook's sleeveless sleep shirt brushing against his palm. The blonde sighs in his sleep against Zoro's bare chest.

The cook never said just what had happened in his nightmare to make Zoro's dream self leave, but he's betting that Sanji's tangent last night into how no one ever loves him back isn't unrelated. Sanji is in love with him. His best friend is in love with him.

He can guess what Sanji's nightmare was about, he bet the cook dreamt about doing something about it, telling him perhaps. And from what he knows about Sanji's dream... Zoro's dream counterpart didn't react well. He saw what that did to Sanji, it ripped him apart. Zoro irrationally wants to go and kill his dream counterpart for that.

But fuck, what's he going to do? Sanji is his best friend. He's never had a friend like Sanji before and he doesn't want to lose that, evidently Sanji doesn't either.

Zoro scrubs at his forehead with his free hand, the one not currently wound around his best friend. He's been awake for an hour going over this again and again in his head and he's still no closer to a solution. He has several thoughts about this.

Firstly, he's attracted to the cook. Really, who wouldn't be? The blonde is handsome and has a dangerous fucking smirk that lights up Zoro's competitive instincts with ease. He's got that kind of slim and strong body that's always been Zoro's particular weakness, Ace's compact frame was one of the better things about him but even he has nothing on Sanji's lithe power. Zoro bites his lip just thinking about it. Sanji has featured in a lot of his fantasies lately, whether he wanted him to or not.

Secondly, Zoro doesn't date. He just doesn't. Love hurts people, looking at Sanji is proof enough of that.

Third, Sanji wants love more than anything else. Well, perhaps not more than the Baratie, but that was it. Zoro can tell that Sanji is one of those people who pours everything he has into a relationship with someone, which is why he gets totally destroyed each time it falls apart. But fuck, he deserves love. If anyone in the world deserves someone to love them then Sanji does.

Fourth, Zoro would do almost anything to make Sanji happy and would sooner die than hurt him.

Fact five, he is 95% sure that Sanji is in love with him.

None of these give him an idea about what to do. Facts one and two suggest that perhaps Zoro should just sleep with Sanji and get it over with. But, number four, that'd hurt Sanji and he won't do that. He'd never hurt him and that would hurt him. Besides, Sanji wouldn't agree to that, he doesn't do no strings attached sex, he doesn't even get the concept. So that wouldn't work.

He has another train of thought. Sanji is in love with him, Sanji wants to be loved and Zoro would do anything for him. So... he could date Sanji. He's smart enough to admit that if he could fall in love with anyone it would be Sanji, he trusts him absolutely and they have a connection that he's never had with anyone. Besides, he ticks damn near every box for Zoro's personal attractiveness rating, the only ones he doesn't tick is because Zoro has some contradictory kinks. Like... he prefers guys who look like Sanji, or even better Sanji himself, but equally he kind of got off on how much bigger and stronger Daz was than him. Obviously no one person could tick both of those boxes.

So great, he'll date the blonde then. But he can't. He doesn't do relationships and he has no idea how to make one work. Besides Sanji was torn up over never meaning as much to his partner as they did to him. Getting into a relationship with Sanji just because he's got the hots for him and because Sanji wants someone isn't a good idea. In fact it's pretty much the very definition of letting Sanji get into the kind of relationship that will hurt him, only worse because it'd be him hurting Sanji. So he won't do that either.

So what then? Pretend that he doesn't know how Sanji feels? Pretend that he isn't tempted? Thats a shitty solution that solves no one's problem, but it doesn't hurt anyone, right? Or is him not reciprocating Sanji's feelings hurting him too? Shit. This is exactly why Zoro doesn't do feelings.

He rolls onto his side and tucks the sleeping Sanji under his chin and holds him close. Was this what relationships were like? It is five in the morning and Sanji is the only thing that was real right now. Sanji shuffles in Zoro's arms in his sleep, getting comfortable with Zoro's new position. Sanji's sleepy arm winds around Zoro's waist and despite all his insistence that Zoro doesn't do love his heart does this... thing... in his chest and he doesn't know why. Sanji is warm against his bare skin and despite not having solved his problem at all he can feel himself drifting off into sleep.

Sanji wakes him by trying to gingerly remove himself from Zoro's arms, Zoro holds him a little tighter and rolls into him so that he's the on sleeping on Sanji's chest instead. Sanji stills and pauses, he feels the other man let out a shaky breath and run a hand through Zoro's hair, ever so lightly.

Zoro shifts, he's tired and he wants to sleep and Sanji is so warm. His attention is entirely gathered though when he feels Sanji's hardness against his side. He remembers that Sanji's just woken up and he's in no better state himself either.

"Zoro, we gotta- oh fuck." Sanji curses as his alarm goes off on the bedside table. He rushes and rolls on top of Zoro, shoving him onto his back in order to reach over and shut off the deafening sound. Zoro opens his eyes and sees Sanji kneeling above him in bed, his hair messed up and his eyes wide. He doesn't say that it's a good look on Sanji and is glad that he has an excuse to be hard.

"Gonna shower." Sanji mumbles and flees the room.

Zoro considers that and, after a moment, curls up into Sanji's bed again. Fuck showering, he'll just go to work as he is. Yeah. Then he can stay warm in bed. Excellent plan.

He's just about drifted off to sleep when Sanji returns to the room and yanks him out of the bed, duvet and all. Zoro growls and looks up at his best friend/mortal enemy. Sanji is still slightly damp with his hair sticking to his face and the warm flush of the shower pinking his skin still. Zoro wants to haul him into bed.

"I was trying to sleep." He grouses up at the blonde.

"You're making yourself late for your first day back at work. Go shower! There's clean towels and stuff, now move." Sanji orders him, hauling Zoro to his feet and shoving him out of the room.

"I don't need to shower! I showered yesterday!" Zoro protests unhappily. Sanji pauses and Zoro thinks he actually feels him shudder.

"I didn't hear that. Get in there." Sanji snaps and shoves him into Sanji's bathroom.

Zoro looks around blankly, the room is still a little steamy from Sanji's own shower. Zoro kicks the door shut and slides his boxes off, he didn't wear anything else to bed after all. After the awkward fiddling with the dials that always comes from trying to work anyone else's shower he manages to get the thing running at a decent temperature and showers himself. Zoro boggles at the range of shampoos, conditioners, body washes and other unidentifiable bottles of brightly coloured things in Sanji's shower; the last time he saw this much body stuff was when he crashed at Nami's.

He emerges from the shower smelling of Sanji like things and coconuts. At which point he realises that he only has his boxers to get changed into, he'd ditched his work clothes in Sanji's room. He dries and replaces his boxers and peeks his head out of Sanji's bathroom feeling confusingly more naked than he did when he went in. All embarrassment disappears to be replaced by amused bafflement when his eyes land on Sanji doing the angriest ironing that Zoro has ever seen.

"When was the last time you ironed this shirt?! It looked like you'd just scrunched it up! You can't show up to work like this!" Sanji exclaims, furiously pressing creases into Zoro's shirtsleeves.

"I don't own an iron." Zoro answers and watches the full body twitch that overtakes Sanji.

Zoro spots his jeans on the sofa and shimmies into them.

"And jeans! The only reason I'm not making you wear something else is because nothing I have will fit you!" Sanji declares.

"As much as I love the whole housewife impression, can I have my shirt?" Zoro teases, resting his hands on Sanji's hips and his head on Sanji's shoulder.

"Call me a housewife again and I'll beat you to death with this iron and strangle you with the power cord. Put it on and if you crease it I'll kill you." Sanji threatens, handing Zoro the shirt and stalking off.

Zoro chews his lip, wondering if he's gone too far. Sanji did seem flustered though, all signs point to Sanji still being in love with him. Hmm. He tucks his cheap white shirt into his jeans and does them up, he doesn't know what the blonde is complaining about, these are his nice jeans.

Sanji returns with a black tie and look on his face that promises Zoro that he can either wear it or be garotted by it.

"I don't wear-" He tries.

"You do now. Keep that one and I'm buying you more, as well as some goddamn shirts that don't feel like you bought them at the supermarket." Sanji snarls. Zoro does not confirm that he did in fact buy his shirt there.

He watches as Sanji does up his newly acquired tie and thinks that this is all... incredibly domestic. He could easily trick himself into thinking that he and Sanji were together, that they even lived together. It's... okay. Which is beyond bizarre because he doesn't do relationships or domesticity, he's never wanted to live with anyone else in any other arrangement than being roommates. So... why now?

Sanji then leaves Zoro alone to put his own shoes on and fusses with his own outfit. Sanji ends up looking like the classily dressed motherfucker that he always does, not like a man who has duck patterned pyjamas and drools in his sleep, which he does. He watches Sanji lacing up his own shoes and doesn't know what he's supposed to feel.

"Come on, come on." Sanji urges and ushers him out of the house. Zoro knows how it must look to Sanji's neighbours but fails to give a single fuck. He can make it work on time if he goes now, but there'll be no time for breakfast with Sanji. When he explains that to the cook the blonde looks crestfallen and sad but accepts it nonetheless.

Zoro arrives at the school and has to sign a few things and deal with some very flustered looks from his headteacher. He ignores them and gets to work. He's covering for the high school section of the huge school today, he prefers working with the little kids but he doesn't get to pick really. Today the English teacher is sick, though Zoro suspects she's hung over knowing her, so he'll teach that today.

The first lesson is with the oldest year in the school, they get on with all of their exam revising and coursework, happy to not have a teacher messing up their time for once. Zoro lets them and answers questions when he's asked. The second lesson is with slightly younger kids and he spends most of the lesson administering a test that the teacher left for them, after that he lets them horse around for about ten minutes and then sends them off early. There's a reason he's the favourite teacher at the school.

The lesson before lunch is with twelve and thirteen year olds, they're covering Shakespeare for the first time and apparently have been doing so for months. They must be bored out of their tiny minds. Zoro doesn't know enough about Romeo and Juliet to teach a class on it and he doesn't know what they do and don't know. So he'll do something different.

"Right so, theme of the play. Gimme." He orders, sitting on his borrowed desk with the book in hand. The kids look at him blankly for a moment, as if expecting a trick.

"Love." One shouts out.

"Tragedy." Another calls.

"Awesome, right. So, people who think the book is about love and how great it is, hands up." He says. About half the class put their hands up.

"People who think it's about tragedy and Romeo and Juliet are idiots, show of hands?" He questions. A third of the class raises their hands, mostly boys and some rather goth looking girls. He likes cynical kids.

"People who have no idea?" He asks and some stragglers put their hands up.

"Cool. Cynics this side of the room; move your desks. Romantics that side and those who have no idea in the middle. Go, go." Zoro orders authoritatively and stares them down as they stare back at him. After a few seconds there's a lot of scraping and fuss as the kids reorganise themselves into their new arrangements. He loves teaching kids, you stare long enough at them and they'll do damn near anything you say. Adults are much too dumb for that, kids are smart.

"Okay, you lot are going to try to convince me, the other side and those indecisive guys in the middle to your point of view. If someone changes your opinion, move." Zoro explains.

"You. Why's the play more about tragedy? Why are these lot wrong?" He demands, pointing his hand at a girl with long flat black hair who's colour obviously came out of a cheap supermarket box dye. Ah, thirteen year olds.

"Cause. Juliet's retarded, she offed herself just because some pretty boy died. Didn't even stick around long enough to calm down. I mean, if he was already dead what was the point in offing herself too? She wasn't in love, she was a moron." the goth kid answers flatly.

"She was NOT! She was in love!" A girl from the 'love' side of the room declares insistently.

"She was our age!" one of the other class members shouts back.

Zoro grins and sits back as the students debate amongst themselves. They know the play inside and out and he's sure that this debate is doing more to challenge their knowledge and make them think than just reading it out would. He wades in regularly to keep it on track or to pause a student to make them cite their claims but all in all the students run the thing. By the end of the class there's no one left in the undecided middle of the room, opinions having been decided and defectors switched from both sides. A few kids stand out as particularly good debaters and he carefully writes their names down and leaves a note for their teacher commending them on their hard work and knowledge.

"They didn't marry for love in those days, it was about power and Juliet was upsetting that. Her father was trying to ensure that she had a good future with someone he approved of." One kid argues.

"But she'd found love, and if he'd listened to her and they'd communicated then this whole thing could have been prevented. Ah, hell." One of the tragedy students gets up and shuffles their desk over to the other side.

"She's still an idiot though!" He declares and sits down with a huff. The love part of the room cheers.

"So, Mr. Roronoa, you haven't told us what you think." the lead girl from the love camp says with a cunning smile. The entire class looks at him expectantly, shit.

"I... don't know." Zoro admits with a shrug. The entire class protests.

"Man, that's weak!" One kid shouts from the back.

"Hey! I used to be with the cynics over there. Juliet's stupid and Romeo is an idiot... but romantics have some good arguments." He admits. He senses someone at the door, probably the headmistress looking in on them. Well, she could see how well the kids were doing.

"Okay, consider this. All relationships end in pain or death. So why on earth should either Romeo or Juliet have got involved with each other?" He challenges them.

"God, that's bleak." One of the romantics murmurs wide eyed.

"True though, you either break up or you die." another says in horror.

"See!" one of the cynics exclaims triumphantly.

"Sir, you're missing the point." the girl smiles smugly.

"Enlighten me." Zoro challenges her.

"Love isn't the end product of romance or life or... or any of it. Romeo and Juliet didn't go through all of that to get love, they already had it. And though they made a bunch of bad decisions their relationship was a success. The point is to be in love, if you can't then yeah, it's a failure. But they did. If you fall in love with someone, marry them and grow old and die, that's not a failure, that's a success. If you're with someone and you love them intensely and they eventually leave you, you still succeeded because you got to be in love. Love is the point, not the... the thing you use to get somewhere." the girl explains.

The class is silent for a second until one of the students softly goes 'whoa'. Zoro agrees.

"The... the point of the play was that Romeo and Juliet had nothing else but love. They're both idiots, it makes their families hate them, their friends die and they die. ALL they had is love. And everyone reacts the way that they do because it was real and it mattered, that's not a failure. They won, they fell in love. They got something people search for their whole lives for. They loved and someone loved them back." She finishes.

Half of the cycnical side of the room ups and moves their chairs to her side, making the girl positively glow with glee. Even the remaining cynics are looking a little dubious.

The bell goes, making Zoro jump.

"Ah, crap. I'll move the desks, you lot go, you're missing lunch. Homework is... to write a response to that and... let me know what it is because... damn." Zoro says admittedly still struck by the girl's words.

"You need me to shout? Go!" He orders and the kids all leap up, grabbing bags and coats.

"Mr. Roronoa?" One kid says, pointing towards the door. Oh yeah, his sneaky visitor. Zoro turns, expecting to see the principal there but instead seeing Sanji leaning in the doorway watching him.

"Sanji." Zoro remarks in surprise.

"Didn't want to interrupt." Sanji smiles and looks at the class who are all watching him back, some more subtly than others.

"Move it shrimps." Zoro barks and the kids all scurry from the room.

"Those are some kids you've got there." Sanji says, raising a curly eyebrow.

"Yeah. I think a twelve year old girl just convinced me that love isn't as dumb as I thought it was." Zoro says, still dazed as he moves around the room to put the desk chairs back where they were.

"As president of the romantic idiot society I ought to thank her. She's got the right idea." Sanji chuckles, dropping his stuff on Zoro's desk and helping him moves chairs.

"You still believe that? Even after what you said to me last night?" Zoro questions and yeah, there's a flinch followed by Sanji relaxing. Sanji just remembered that what he'd dreamt he'd said or done wasn't real and that he doesn't know about it. Sanji grimaces instead, probably remembering how in a pit of agony he'd explained how no one ever loved him back.

"Yeah. It hurts like a bitch but I still believe in love." Sanji says softly.

"You're crazy, but you lot make some convincing arguments sometimes." Zoro admits and untangles two chair legs.

"I brought lunch by the way, seeing as you skipped breakfast which is awful and I will not allow you to ever do that again." Sanji insists with a glare that makes Zoro laugh and forget that the blonde just changed the subject awfully quickly.

Sanji starts babbling about his morning at work, about Zeff and some customers. It passes the time as they clear up the room. Zoro doesn't really listen though, his mind on Sanji's tearful words last night and the girl in class.


	10. Chapter 10

Sanji is learning to accept that Zoro is simply never going to feel for him what Sanji does. Zoro doesn't do romantic love and that's a real shame. But as he looks over at Zoro in the bar that Zoro persuaded him to come to he can certainly say that Zoro loves him in his own way.

He rests his cheek on his palm and smiles at the marimo, Zoro is talking about his day with the kids at school and saying for about the millionth time how happy he is to have his job back and how much he thanks Sanji for it and... yeah. There's no way this guy doesn't love him. Zoro is practically glowing as he turns to Sanji and beams at him and it just melts Sanji's heart. Zoro is his best friend and he's lucky to have him. He's been so focused lately on being romantically attracted to the man that he's not paid so much attention to what a great friend he is.

"You've got that goofy look on your face cook, what are you thinking about?" Zoro smirks, poking Sanji in the forehead.

"Oi, don't poke me, asshat. I was just thinking that I'm glad we're friends." Sanji says, swatting Zoro's hand away and turning back to face his drink.

"Don't get too sentimental on me cook, I might cry." Zoro grins, bumping his shoulder into Sanji's affectionately.

"Oh, that reminds me. I wanted to ask you a favour." Zoro says, perking up a little as he drains the last of his whiskey in the glass. It's a nice one that this particular bar has, it's pretty much what Zoro dragged him here for but Sanji doesn't much like the stuff so it was probably a waste on Zoro's part.

"Would you teach me how to cook something?" Zoro asks softly, looking over at Sanji.

The blonde's heart catches in his throat. Zoro's never expressed an interest in learning to cook before, despite Sanji's endless mocking of his lack of skill. This is certainly new.

"What are you wanting to learn how to cook?" He asks in curious interest.

Zoro frowns and scratches his chin as if he hadn't really thought that far ahead, typical Zoro.

"I don't know, what would you be impressed with if someone cooked it for you? What would you like?" Zoro asks, looking at him carefully. Sanji's eyes widen and he feels his face redden, is... is Zoro trying to learn to cook to impress him?

Sanji is just opening his mouth to formulate a reply when a hand lands on Zoro's shoulder and startles the other man. They both look up in surprise and look pressingly at the guy with his hand on Zoro's shoulder. He's tall, probably about four inches taller than Zoro and the guy is broad too, his shoulders and chest are all bulging with an improbable amount of muscle. His biceps are probably bigger than Sanji's head.

The guy is wearing a baby blue polo shirt with a popped collar of all things, the kind of thing that makes Sanji's internal sensors ring out "douchebag" just on sight. His skin is a tan colour which is probably a fake imitation of Zoro's natural hue.

"Vodka red bull for me and a refill of whatever this guy is drinking." The guy calls to the bartender with a grin that makes Sanji's hackles rise. Who the hell does his asshole think he is?

The bartender hands the drinks over to Douchebag (as Sanji has internally dubbed him) and he pays, he passes Zoro drink to him, his fingers lingering on Zoro's for a touch too long. Sanji watches as Zoro's eyes flick up and down the guy.

"Uh, thanks." Zoro says with a slight scowl and puts his drink next to his empty one that he'd drained earlier.

"No problem. You come here often? I've never seen you here before." The guy smiles at Zoro and leans on the bar 'accidentally' flexing his biceps as he does so.

Sanji scowls, this clown is such a pretentious ass, who does he think he's impressing with his muscles? Oh. Zoro. Zoro is probably who he thinks he's impressing and...

Sanji's mind flashes to the picture of Zoro pinned under Daz naked and sinfully arched under the much bigger man's hands. This guy isn't as big as Daz but he's easily bigger than both Sanji and Zoro and Sanji is pretty sure that this is Zoro's thing. Shit, Sanji would sooner die than see Zoro get off with this douchebag!

"Sometimes, I like the whiskey here." Zoro shrugs and sips his drink.

Sanji grits his teeth, why the hell is Zoro answering this guy?! He's just encouraging him! He grinds his beer bottle into the bar as Douchebag introduces himself and Zoro gives his own name back in response.

"You wanna go dance?" Douchebag asks, his voice low and seductive.

"No." Zoro answers simply and sips at his drink. Sanji gives an internal cry of victory and tries to give Douchebag the best 'fuck off and leave' glare that he can. Douchebag seems to notice him at last and his gaze settles on Sanji, he looks the cook up and down and raises his lip slightly in a little sneer as if he's not impressed with what he sees.

"What, don't wanna leave your buddy here alone?" Douchebag asks, raising an eyebrow.

"You'll be okay right, pal?" Douchebag says looking condescendingly at Sanji.

"I ain't your pal, shithead." Sanji growls darkly as spots the slight twitch at the corner of Zoro's mouth. His anger apparently amuses the marimo.

"Whatever, tiny." Douchebag snorts arrogantly.

"I'm not gonna dance with you, so you might as well go. I came here with him, I'm not gonna just fuck off and leave him because some guy asks." Zoro says firmly.

"So leave." Sanji agrees, scowling at the guy.

"Fine, I get that you don't wanna leave your little friend here. But I bought you a pretty pricy drink, you at least owe me a little conversation." the guy insists, leaning into Zoro's space.

"I don't owe you shit. Fuck off." Zoro snaps, his eyes angry. Sanji is by now used to reading all of Zoro's little tells and the other man is seriously angry.

"Aw come on. Tell you what, answer me ten things truthfully and I'll leave you be if that's what you want." the douchebag offers.

Sanji watches as Zoro rolls his eyes and then drops his shoulders in defeat, probably figuring that agreeing is the easiest way to get this guy to goddamn leave them alone already. Zoro flicks Sanji an apologetic look before adopting a face of pure boredom and resting his chin in his palm.

"Ten and then you leave me the hell alone." Zoro grumbles irritably.

"Okay, starting now?" Douchebag asks, sitting in the chair next to Zoro sideways on.

"Yes, starting now. Nine questions left." Zoro says, bored.

"What, you can't be serious!" Douchebag gawps, Sanji grins at his idiocy, another question down.

"I am. Eight left." Zoro responds and Sanji laughs quietly, earning him a scornful look from the popped collar wearing moron.

The fake-tan wearing narcissist scowls but finally catches on.

"Fine, then. Are you into guys?" He asks Zoro bluntly.

"I am. Seven left." Zoro responds as disinterestedly as if the guy had just told him the time or something else equally mundane.

"Okay. Would you dance with me if your little friend wasn't here?" the guy asks, throwing a condescending look at Sanji as if he's barely worth the effort to look at. Sanji tries to resist the temptation to relocate this guy's lower jaw to somewhere like the ceiling.

"No. Six left." he replies, making Sanji's heart sing.

That seems to really shock Douchebag, he'd evidently chalked Zoro's reluctance down to Zoro being a good friend and simply not wanting to abandon Sanji at the bar alone. Hearing that it's not the case makes Sanji unreasonably happy. Sanji watches in glee as the guy gathers his wits together and a truly nasty scowl comes onto his face and Sanji feels justified in his hatred for this guy, he's clearly a nasty piece of work.

"So what, then? Don't tell me that this scrawny twink here is your boyfriend, are you only into girly guys or something?" Douchebag laughs at Sanji.

Sanji's ass leaves his seat as he sits up and prepares to kill this steroid riddled motherfucker. Zoro's hand on his chest stops him though.

"No, he's not. As for my type, it's not you. I like guys who are strong enough to challenge me and make it feel worth it when I get to top or like they've earned it when they top me. I've had guys who are way bigger than you, but he wasn't on steroids like you are so his strength was real and natural. Your muscles are just for show and my friend here stands a hell of a lot better chance in a real match up with me than you do." Zoro says, jerking his thumb in Sanji's direction.

Sanji feels like an entire goddamn colony of butterflies have exploded in his stomach. Zoro... Zoro would consider sleeping with him? He's... he's not just into guys like Daz? Had he leapt to the wrong conclusion? Oh god, could he really genuinely stand a chance with Zoro? Fuck, he's gonna die if Zoro's just saying this shit to get rid of Douchebag.

"Now, you're outta questions. So get the fuck outta my face." Zoro growls threateningly, leaning over the bar so he's right in Douchebag's face.

"The way I count it, I've got one left. So here it is. You wanna fuck that blonde of yours, huh?" Douchebag asks and Sanji watches how Zoro twitches back and his face goes red, making Douchebag laugh right at him.

"Oh what, you not gonna answer me?" Douchebag laughs, shoving Zoro in the shoulder.

Sanji's hand snaps forward and he grabs Douchebag's hand before he can touch him again.

"You and me, outside. Now. I'm gonna kick your ass, and if they haven't shrivelled up entirely I may even kick you in the nuts for touching Zoro." Sanji snarls, getting out of his seat as he flings the guy's hand away and makes his way around the chair.

"Sanji, no, what are you-" Zoro tries, hoping to stop him. Sanji shakes him off though, this guy has insulted him more than enough tonight to warrant the ass kicking, let alone all of the harassment that he's given Zoro. Besides, there's a hopeful little voice in his head that says maybe if Zoro sees that he can really kick ass then maybe Zoro might consider him for a romantic partner. Maybe he can convince the idiot to give love a shot for once because he really wants to be more than Zoro's best friend and fuck buddy. He wants to be the love of Zoro's life, he wants Zoro to yearn for him like he does for Zoro. And yeah, this is stupid but he's got a history of doing dumb stuff to impress girls, why should Zoro be any different?

Douchebag has the audacity to laugh right in Sanji's face, his popped collar waving with the motion.

"What, you?! I'd break you like a twig, shrimp." Douchebag guffaws.

"Then what's stopping you from proving it? I'll be outside, come join me to get your ass handed to you by a guy half your weight." Sanji says firmly, shoving a cigarette in his mouth and pulling his lighter out.

"And you stay here Zoro, I'm not having someone take your picture outside a bar again, not after last time." Sanji orders and stalks off outside the bar. He lights his cigarette as soon as he gets outside and walks a few paces past the door.

He rolls his shoulders and taps his feet into place in his shoes, happy that he wore his hard dress shoes to go out with Zoro, he's wearing his tailored black suit trousers too so he can happily kick straight up without risking splitting a seam. The rest of him is dressed more casually with a nice T-shirt under his blue jacket, all in all he thinks he'll be able to fight nice and easily without being restrained. Which is good, he doesn't want to restrain anything with this fucker.

Douchebag makes his way outside and stands by the door as it swings shut behind him, his sneer visible in the light of the bar spilling out onto the street.

"Decided to finally join me then? Glad to see you worked up the courage." Sanji smirks around his cigarette.

"I'm gonna paste your face across the floor." Douchebag growls angrily, he's clearly not used to people standing up to him. Sanji doesn't care though, he's going to be the one doing the pasting here.

He rests back on his hips a little, tilting his balance to lower his centre of gravity and load up his hamstrings for a jump. Douchebag readies his fist and just straight up charges at Sanji with his arm out like a battering ram. Sanji rolls his eyes and neatly steps to the side, flicking a nice kick into the back of the guy's own hamstrings, making his leg go dead and Douchebag stumble. The guy snarls and whips around to face Sanji, clearly not used to people fighting smart. Sanji isn't an idiot this guy weighs at least twice what he does and technique or no simple physics will make it really hurt if this guy makes contact with him at all, he doesn't intend to give him that opportunity.

The guy throws haymaker after haymaker as Sanji casually backs up, this guy knows nothing about fighting at all. He waits for the guy to throw another, twisting his body and leaving his side vulnerable, lo and behold captain predictable does just that and Sanji rewards him with a strong kick in the ribs. The buy buckles to the floor and Sanji follows his move up with another kick to the underside of the back of his ribs, right in all of his squishy organs.

The cook dances back out of his reach again, wary of the potential for Douchebag to lash out against him. He doesn't get out of the way quick enough though and the other guy's arm snaps out fast enough to throw Sanji back against the dumpsters by the bar. The impact of his body sends out a large metallic clang.

Sanji darts out of the way as Douchebag leaps to his feet snarling and flings himself at Sanji. Unfortunately the cook is running out of room to duck and weave out of the way. He needs to go on the offensive.

He kicks into the guy's stomach and bounces back away from him with his other leg, he ducks a large handed swipe for his head but unfortunately doing so limits his ability to move back even further and he's forced to kick out again in order to keep the guy at a safe distance. A pumped up meaty arm clamps around Sanji's leg as Douchebag takes the hit to his side but refuses to let him go. Sanji pales, he's trapped in the guy's range now with nowhere to go!

"Let him go!" Zoro roars from behind Douchebag, startling the guy.

Sanji seizes the opportunity and puts all of his weight on his trapped leg, tipping Douchebag backwards at the sudden change of balance and using his other leg to kick straight upwards. His flexibility means that he can kick vertically even at this close range. Douchebag's head snaps back as Sanji's kick catches him right under the jaw. He tumbles back onto the floor, dragging Sanji down with him and bouncing the cook painfully on the concrete as he goes.

Zoro swoops in, his arms coming around Sanji's sides as he pulls the cook free from Douchebag's slackened grip.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Sanji insists, shaking Zoro off. Douchebag seems more or less down for the count and Sanji doesn't want to be around when he gets his senses again, so he doesn't resist when Zoro grabs his hand and drags him off into the night.

"Are you crazy? That guy wasn't worth the fight, he was some loser, I could have dealt with it and he would have gone away sooner or later!" Zoro snaps at him, pulling him down an alleyway as they cut across town.

"You might be happy to sit there and be insulted but I wasn't and I wasn't going to let him talk to you like that either!" Sanji argues back, pulling his hand from Zoro's and stopping in his tracks, folding his arms petulantly.

"Well thank you for defending my virginal honour, how ever can a young maiden thank you?" Zoro asks sarcastically.

"You should have just left it, you stupid fuck!" He snaps, shoving Sanji angrily.

"What, you think I can't take the guy? That I can't handle myself?!" Sanji argues back. So Zoro really doesn't think him worthy as a partner, or at least he'd considered him too weak for it. Well fuck him, he'd shown him hadn't he?

"Did I say that?" Zoro groans in exasperation, rolling his eyes.

"Either of us could have easily trashed that moron, you just did. It's just not worth the risk or the time, who cares what that moron thinks about me? I don't. Besides, your clothes are all messed up now, was it worth it?" Zoro sighs, dusting Sanji's jacket for him. Sanji looks himself up at down, Zoro's right, he's a little grubby from his fight.

"And you've got road rash on your face now from after you brought him down." Zoro murmurs softly, reaching to touch Sanji's cheek gingerly with his thumb. True enough Sanji can feel the sting of broken skin as Zoro's fingers ghost over his cheekbone. The sensation is overwhelmed by the flutters in his stomach though and between that and the concerned and affectionate look in Zoro's eyes makes it super hard for Sanji to not just lean in and kiss the other man.

"I guess I let my temper get the better of me, but that guy had it coming." Sanji admits grudgingly, his skin flushing with embarrassment.

Zoro's face cracks into a grin at that.

"Yeah, he kinda did. And I didn't know you were flexible enough to kick that high either, that was pretty cool." Zoro agrees with a laugh.

"I am all kinds of flexible." Sanji boasts and leans backwards, bending himself back into an arch until his fingertips ghost the floor before shifting his weight onto them and achingly slowly bringing his legs up into a hand stand. He then drops one leg down to his hands whilst keeping the other straight up into the air, essentially doing the splits. His showing off completed he flicks back into full standing with a flourish and an exaggerated bow.

"Show off." Zoro mutters, shoving Sanji in the shoulder and walking off.

"Hey, if you were this awesome you would too. Sadly, you're not." Sanji mocks, shoving him back and gently steering them back on the course for home, rather than the direction that Zoro was taking him.

"Shut it." Zoro grumbles, shoving him again.

"You know..." Sanji begins and steels his courage, "I thought when that douchebag came up to you that you might actually take him up on his offer. Especially after you accepted his drink. I'd thought he was your type, you know, after Daz..."

"What? No way. I have better taste." Zoro squawks indignantly, looking at Sanji in horror.

"I just don't turn down free booze." He adds on thoughtfully.

"Hm, and look where that landed us." the blonde points out and Zoro grumbles unhappily at that, he clearly didn't want Sanji highlighting that particular fact.

"Anyway, Daz was different. Daz's strength was real, not something you can buy. Daz was a big guy so he was bigger and stronger, but if you took him down to our height he wouldn't have been much more muscled than I am. He was just... scaled up I guess." Zoro shrugs.

Sanji nods thoughtfully, a little more relieved that Daz's appeal wasn't just his size. Zoro sighs and sounds a little melancholy. Sanji looks over to see Zoro walking a little slower, his hands jammed in his pockets and his shoulders dropped a little in sadness.

"What?" He prompts in concern.

"I just feel a little bad about Daz. It wasn't his fault that his girlfriend was a psycho. He was a nice guy, despite his irritating habit of using pet names on me and being crazy kinky. I liked him." Zoro mumbles a little sadly. Sanij's eyes widen, he's not going to lose Zoro to Daz, not again! He can't compete with that!

"You're not thinking of getting back together with him are you?" He balks in horror.

"What? No. Even though it's not really his fault I can't really trust him like that again. But... I don't know. Maybe I could try to be friends with him, he was an okay guy. Meh, it's just a little sad is all. Come on, it's cold as hell out here, let's go home." Zoro pouts, shoving Sanji until he leads the way home again.

Sanji relaxes a little, he supposes it's okay for Zoro to miss something that he had in his life, as long as he doesn't want to go back to Daz, as selfish as that is of him to think that.

Sanji shoves his hands in his pockets as he walks, enjoying the tingling come down from the adrenaline of the fight as well as the flutters in his stomach from impressing Zoro at least a little. Zoro seems to be thinking about something too so the both of them walk in one of their traditional peaceful silences.

"So... you were gonna teach me to cook something?" Zoro says after a while, a note of hope in his voice.

"Of course I will, you said you wanted to learn something that'd impress me?" Sanji says as nonchalantly as possible.

"Yeah. For one thing I need to get on Robin's good side. I've got something to ask her and I'd like to put her in as good a mood as possible." Zoro says vaguely.

"Oh, well... ok. I'll think of something to teach you." Sanji agrees a little less enthusiastically. They're reaching Zoro's building now and he can't help but be a little disappointed. He'd thought that Zoro was wanting to learn to cook to impress him.

"You know cook..." Zoro says slowly, leaning on the entrance to his building and opening the door.

"I think you might be onto something with this romance thing. Maybe falling in love is worth a try. Night." Zoro says casually and disappears into his building with a casual wave, as if he hadn't just dropped the biggest bombshell ever on Sanji and left.

Sanji just stares. No way were those two topics unrelated. He wanted to learn to cook to impress Robin and he had something to ask her? Something he wanted her to say yes to and... and Zoro thinks that romance and love are worth a shot? He... he can't be into Robin can he? But he had crashed there before, and true enough he'd denied that there was anything going on between him and Robin then but Zoro also then said that he didn't believe in love at that time.

Shit, he was so worried about keeping Zoro from Daz and douchebags like the guy tonight that he'd not even considered the other gender, he'd thought that Zoro was just interested in guys. But had Zoro ever said as much? He couldn't remember.

Sanji walks home on unsteady feet, his world falling out from underneath him. Zoro was considering romance and he wanted Robin and not him. God... no.


	11. Chapter 11

Despite having agreed to teach Zoro how to cook an impressive meal Sanji seemed to lose interest almost as soon as he'd promised it and Zoro had no idea why. He'd thought that Sanji might like teaching him, it'd give him an opportunity to show off and be better at something. For all of Sanji's nice qualities he could be quite a show off so Zoro had thought that he'd be over the moon to indulge himself, especially as Zoro had said that Robin would be the beneficiary of his eventual cooking and Sanji was all about pleasing the ladies. Puzzlingly it seemed like it was the last thing that Sanji wanted to do. After about a week and a half of putting it off Sanji had just grudgingly leant Zoro a cook book and declared himself too busy to teach Zoro, not that he seemed that busy.

Zoro has absolutely zero confidence in his ability to cook properly, much less anywhere near to the level that Sanji did. But he was going to try, that was the main thing. It's mid morning and he's already got everything on his list that he needs for his dinner with Robin and he even passed that fancy tailors that Sanji likes and stopped inside for him. The idiot had lost a jacket button off of his favourite black jacket when he fought with that douchebag a while back and he'd been whimpering about it ever since. With one perfect gold button in his pocket he swings by the Baratie on his way home.

He peers through the big plate glass windows of the Baratie but doesn't see his favourite chef anywhere, not even through the hatch to the kitchen. On an instinctual whim he swings around the back of the Baratie and sees Sanji's long lean form clad in black and blue as he stands and smokes outside. Zoro watches him for a second and watches his own internal reaction like a hawk, his heart clenches at seeing Sanji and that's significantly more disturbing than the spark of lust in his brain at seeing the cook's slender strong body. He walks up to him, paying attention to his own reactions.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in and threw up on the rug." Sanji says flatly, stuffing his hands in his pocket. His jacket is missing because of the lost button. Zoro squints at him as he approaches with his bags, he puts them carefully on the floor and settles in front of Sanji.

"What crawled up your ass and died to make you so pissy?" He demands, frowning at Sanji. It's not unlike Sanji to be moody but the blonde is so rarely distant like this. Usually it's all angry silence and bitching about what's pissed him off, switching wildly from one to the other. Still Sanji usually likes company when he's angry, it helps him calm down quicker, but Zoro's never seen this before.

"Nothing!" Sanji snaps, lighting up another smoke and sucking on it angrily so the tip glows harshly.

"Have I pissed you off or something shit-cook? Cause you seem to be pissed at me in particular, if I have stop being a little kid and just spit it out." Zoro snaps, quite fed up of this bullshit.

"Fuck you and your ego, I'm fine. Is that the stuff for your date with Robin?" Sanji asks, rapidly changing the subject away from whatever it is that's pissing him off.

"Ugh, it's not a date. Why would I date Robin? I'm just making her dinner so I can ask her a favour." he replies shaking his head in exasperation, where does Sanji get these ideas?

"Well, I'm gonna leave you to be an idiot on your own. Later." Zoro grumbles, turning around. As he takes his first step he feels the button in his pocket and pauses, putting his shopping down already.

"Lost already?" Sanji questions, a slight laugh in his tone. That makes Zoro feel better, Sanji can't be that pissed off if he's still talking like that.

"No, I got you something. Forgot about it." Zoro mutters and puts his hand in his pocket to retrieve the button. He scowls a little at Sanji before walking up to him and pressing it into Sanji's palm.

"Here, now you can stop bitching about your suit." Zoro says and turns away.

"Oh... oh Zoro... where did you get this?" Sanji asks from behind him, his voice suddenly soft. Zoro picks up his bags and turns around to face Sanji who is looking down at the button in his hands with wonder in his eyes.

"That fancy pants suit shop, now you can fix your jacket right?" he sighs wearily.

"Yeah. You didn't have to... Ugh. I've been a dick to you Zoro, I'm sorry. This was really thoughtful and I've just been... ugh." Sanji sighs, dragging his hands through his hair in frustration, affording Zoro a rare look at both eyes at once. Zoro's stomach flutters at the thought that there's probably not many people Sanji would do that in front of, he seems to be pretty picky about not letting people see his face, although Zoro has no idea why.

"What's with you anyway?" Zoro asks. Sanji's mouth twists unhappily as he plays with the button in his hand, running a thumbnail over the pattern on the gold.

"I'm just... dealing with some stuff is all. I know what I should do but..." Sanji shakes his head and seems to drop the conversation.

"You don't want to talk to me about it." Zoro says, and it's a statement, not a question. If Sanji had wanted to talk to him about it then he either would have done so or made a big song and dance about the whole issue to get Zoro to ask what was wrong so that he could spill and still say that he put up a fight about it. This wasn't like that though.

"Sorry." Sanji says shaking his head and looking immensely guilty.

"No, your apology is never going to be enough. I'm going to go home and cry my poor broken little girl heart out because my best friend won't tell me all her little secrets. Then I'll throw our matching friendship necklaces out of the window." He says, his voice dripping with as much sarcasm as he can muster. Sanji cracks up, holding his stomach and doubled over from laughing so hard. Zoro grins, it's nice seeing Sanji happy again, as sappy as that makes him.

"Though if you do wanna talk to someone, Robin's always good. She likes other people's secrets and as morbid as she can be she's usually pretty solid with her advice. She doesn't gossip either." Zoro suggests seriously. He doesn't know if Sanji would have a problem spilling his secrets to a 'delicate lady' after all. Though Robin was hardly that, Zoro knows that well enough. Robin is smart and sharp and she's got a stronger stomach than almost anyone else that Zoro knows, but delicate she is not.

"It's ok, thanks anyway." the blonde replies, shaking his head. Zoro wonders just what it is that's bothering his cook.

...his cook?

Shit.

He really needs to talk to Robin.

"Well, I gotta go. We've both got cooking to do." he says suddenly, not feeling entirely safe being around Sanji until he's got this thing in his head worked out.

"Yeah." Sanji mumbles, his voice sounding strange. Zoro doesn't get a chance to investigate it though as Sanji disappears back inside.

Zoro shakes it off, he has to get back to his place to cook for Robin. She'll be over in a few hours and he needs time to get everything right.

Zoro is still no better a cook than he ever was, apparently spending time with Sanji doesn't transfer the blonde's skills to him through osmosis. Moreover cooking is now so linked in Zoro's mind with Sanji that he keeps getting distracted with thoughts of the blonde. Both his heart and his libido are taking turns in tormenting him. He'll be innocently stirring some cream as it heats and his heart will kick him an image of him doing just that, only for Sanji to come up behind him. He imagines Sanji resting his head on Zoro's shoulder to watch what he's doing as slender and strong arms come to wrap around his waist, closing him into a loose hug. By the time he snaps out of it the cream has burnt. Then he'll be kneeling down to get something out of the oven and his sex drive will wander over to him and make him wonder if anyone's ever blown Sanji in his kitchen and whether Sanji would like that. He's already on his knees after all, he can just imagine looking up and seeing the expression on Sanji's face when- the smoke detector blares and snaps Zoro out of his imagination.

By the time Robin gets to his house Zoro is slightly charred and sticky from cooking. He drops himself onto the sofa again after letting her in. Robin's nose wrinkles at the smell of smoke inside his home.

"How does Chinese takeout strike you?" He asks in fed up exhaustion.

"Just fine Zoro." Robin giggles lightly, settling herself next to him on the sofa as they pick over a menu and order.

Robin doesn't even ask what it is that Zoro wants her advice on, she's playing it cool and pretending like she doesn't know that Zoro asked her around for her advice. She wants him to crack and ask rather than her prying, not that she'd admit that if he accused her. No, she'd be the picture of demure innocence. What bullshit.

"I think I'm in love and I don't know what to do about it." He blurts out over the sweet and sour chicken.

"And how does that make you feel?" Robin asks, popping a spring roll into her mouth daintily.

"Seriously? You're actually going to do the 'how does that make you feel' psychologist bullshit?" He snorts in disbelief.

"No, I'm perfectly happy to drop the whole thing if you don't want to tell me." Robin says simply. She stares at him with her piercing blue eyes and Zoro stares back, he blinks first. He'd have a better chance of beating a cat in a staring contest than Robin. Defeated he slumps down in the sofa, ditching his meal on the side-table.

"I don't know. Confused, miserable, scared." he mumbles, staring at his knees.

"That's understandable, this is new territory for you." Robin says sympathetically, dabbing her mouth with a napkin and settling her own dish on the coffee table before curling up on the sofa to face Zoro.

"It's Sanji." He admits as quietly as possible.

"Please don't take offence to this, but that was pretty obvious." Robin smiles. He covers his face and groans, sliding down further into the sofa cushions. He hopes that this isn't why Sanji has been weird with him lately, he couldn't tell could he?

"So you've progressed beyond feelings of friendship then. I presume that this is sexual too, but please don't tell me that you're just confused because this is the first time that you've been friends with someone that you wanted to sleep with." She questions, her voice a little sharp with protectiveness that Zoro didn't know Robin felt towards Sanji. He feels an uncomfortable flare of territoriality, he's the one who gets to be protective over Sanji.

Good god this is stupid.

"Give me a little credit. And besides, I never said I wanted to sleep with him, you're assuming." He points out, feeling petulant.

"Oh please Zoro, if I have to pretend to be ignorant of everything about this I'll be here all night. Obviously you want to fuck Sanji. What I'm asking is are you sure that this is love?" She sighs impatiently.

Zoro picks at the stitching on his crappy sofa. Yes, Sanji is his friend, his best friend no less but... it's more than just feeling that whilst also wanting to bone him. He flicks his gaze to Robin, she's watching him intently. He sighs in surrender, he knows that she won't blab about what he's told her, she doesn't do that. But she's pretty firm about only giving back what you put in. If Zoro wants all the advice she can give him, he's going to have to give her all of the gory details in return.

"I want everything. Yes I wanna be his friend still and go out drinking with him, and yes I wanna screw him until I make him scream. But... it's more than that. I want to see him wake up in the morning and refuse to let him out of bed because I just want him nearby. I want... I want to see this shitty little place fill up with Sanji's things so it feels like he lives here too, I want to listen to the stupid little songs he hums under his breath when he cooks and just-" Zoro cuts himself off with a groan. What is happening to him?

"That sounds a lot like love to me. Scary isn't it?" Robin smiles gently. Zoro hums in agreement and the two of them fall silent. Robin seems to consider things for a little while.

"How do you think Sanji feels?" She asks eventually, settling herself a little closer to Zoro. He looks at her and for a moment or two he tries to read her, to see what it is that she knows. Robin doesn't ask questions like this if she doesn't have at least some grasp of the truth. She's as unlikely to tell him what she knows though as she is to tell what he's said to anyone else, so he's out of luck there.

"I don't know. Half of the time I think he feels the same and is just to scared to do anything about it and... the rest of the time I'm just worried that I'm seeing what I want to see. I've never been this close to someone before, I don't want to fuck this up." He admits in frustration. The blonde can be so irritatingly hot and cold and sometimes Zoro catches Sanji looking at him with a kind of soft expression that makes him want to just throw his fears to the wind and lean in and kiss the idiot. But the thought of losing him... it isn't something that he can stand to think about.

"A reasonable concern." Robin acknowledges.

"Ugh. This is why I don't do love, it's shit and full of stupid choices." He bitches and grabs up his plate, angrily stuffing a heaped spoonful of egg fried rice into his mouth and chewing it far too fast.

"Do you think that if you're seeing something that's not there that Sanji would react badly to your advances?" Robin asks him curiously.

Zoro frowns in thought. Sure he can imagine Sanji acting badly, blowing up and never wanting to see him again. But just because he can imagine something doesn't mean that it's likely. He's pretty sure that his bond with Sanji is strong enough that even if the cook didn't feel the same for him that things would be fine. A little awkward for a while perhaps, but fine.

"Nah." He says with certainty and eats a little more. Robin remains watching him in silence, sensing that it's not over.

"I'm not being a coward because I'm worried about how he'll react, I'm worried about what'll happen if he says yes." Zoro admits softly.

"Oh?" Robin asks, sounding genuinely surprised.

Zoro thinks a little bit how to phrase this without blurting out Sanji's own secrets. He's fine to tell his own to Robin but not someone else's, that's not right. He puts his plate down and thinks.

"Sanji's had a lot of relationships." Zoro says slowly.

"You think he'll tire of you?" Robin guesses.

"Let me finish." he grumbles, shooting her a glare. Robin holds up her dainty hands in a peace gesture.

"Lots of his relationships end badly, the idiots he picks don't like him as much as he likes them." He says vaguely, willing Robin to get his point.

"This is new to me, what if... what if I end up doing the same to him? I don't want that. Is there some way I can know if this is a solid thing or what?" He asks, looking at Robin.

"Oh Zoro, if only there was. That's the gamble that you take whenever you get involved with someone. Sanji knows that and you should too. It's just part of the risk. And you're both big enough and old enough to be able to deal with that consequence." Robin says softly, her words unflinching but her hand gently reaching out to soothingly rub between Zoro's shoulder blades, as if she can ease the blow of her words.

"I don't want to hurt him though." He says quietly. The thought of Sanji hurt makes him want to break things and hunt down the asshole that did it, he doesn't know what to do about the idea that he could hurt Sanji.

"He'll know that." Robin comforts him.

"You think I should do it then? Tell him?" Zoro questions, looking at her.

"I'm not going to tell you what I think you should do, I just think that whatever you choose to do you should accept the consequences of. If you don't tell him then you risk depriving yourself of a relationship you potentially could have had and lost a lot of happiness, and Zoro you deserve to be happy. You've had your own life on pause for so long with Kuina that you need to live your own fully for once. But if you choose to get into a relationship with Sanji then you have to accept that there's a possibility of one of you hurting the other and you need to accept that." Robin says firmly, in her best no nonsense voice.

"So I'm fucked either way." Zoro concludes, flopping back onto the sofa.

"Welcome to love." Robin laughs gently, making Zoro smile slightly himself.

"Now come on, you promised me that we would marathon some good slasher movies. You're the only one who watches them with me." Robin beams, shoving Zoro on the shoulder. He laughs and falls off of the sofa before rolling to the side to slide a DVD in the player.

"I'm the only one with a strong enough stomach to do this, that's why." He grins, settling himself back on the sofa.

"Wusses." Robin smirks, digging back into her Chinese chicken just as someone in the first thirty seconds of the film is messily eviscerated on screen.

Zoro eats some prawn crackers and pulls out his phone. He opens a text to Sanji and starts to write.

"I'm a terrible pupil, I burnt everything. We're having takeout and watching slasher movies."

His phone silently pings to life almost immediately, a message from Sanji.

"That is just sad. You are a terrible date. And to clarify, you're being called sad by a guy who's spending the evening sewing a button onto his jacket and getting through a bottle of wine on his own."

Zoro laughs softly and pauses before replying. Sanji thinks that this is a date again, is he being paranoid? Or... jealous perhaps? Could Sanji have been pissy because Sanji feels something for him and doesn't like the idea of him seeing someone else. It's not like he'd told the blonde that he... ah. He had mentioned something about considering love hadn't he? In fairness he'd done it to see what Sanji's reaction would be, not that it'd told him a lot. Though he supposes that Sanji could have paired that with the idea of him asking Robin over and...

"I'm an idiot." Zoro groans, smacking himself on the forehead.

"Accepting it is the first step towards rehabilitation." Robin says sagely, grinning in the dark.

"Not a date. I don't sleep with women, OR date them. Just needed to bribe her for advice, told you she was good." Zoro writes back hastily.

"Lucky for Robin, I'd hate to see her with someone as shitty as you! Remind me to teach you how to cook properly sometime, so you won't be such a disaster! :D"

Zoro smiles to himself, putting his phone away and drinking a little more of his beer. His mind flicks to all of his imaginings of Sanji when he was cooking. He'd really like for some of those to come true.

But for now he has bad takeout to eat and a terrible slasher movie to watch with Robin.

"The blonde will die last." Robin predicts grimly.

"The girl or the guy?" Zoro questions, looking at the actors.

"Girl." Robin answers.

"Five bucks says she goes before the guy." Zoro grins, pulling his wallet out.

"I do love taking your money." she smirks.

"Not as much as Nami!" he laughs, making Robin snigger, placing her own money on the table for their bet.

Zoro relaxes into the sofa, the feel of his phone in his pocket comforting. He's not sure what he's going to do yet, but he feels a little clearer about his choices now.


	12. Chapter 12

Sanji looks down at the paper on the table in front of him. It's filled with questions that he doesn't know the answer to, he keeps trying to focus on the task but whenever he reads the questions the words just warp and twist out of his reach. When he finally manages to concentrate enough to pin one of the questions down he suddenly can't find his pen, he anxiously scrabbles for it and his fellow classmates around him keep shooting him pitying looks. He eventually finds his pen and he's just about to write the answer to the first question when the teacher calls for the end of the test.

Sanji's heart races and his skinny hands clench together, this can't be the end! He's not written a single word yet! He stares down at the test before him, determined to put something anything down before the teacher sees it. Before he can manage that though the teacher's large hand plucks the test from his desk and adds it to the pile in his arms. Sanji feels sick, he's going to fail and he can't afford to fail this class.

He looks forlornly out of the window, his reflection looking back at him slightly transparently. He focuses on his own reflection rather than the school yard outside the window. He's all awkward teenage shapes and long limbs, he hopes that when he's an adult he'll fill out a little bit because right now he just looks so skinny and bird boned. At least he's not suffering from acne like most of his fellow sixteen year olds.

The teacher is flicking through the tests at his desk as everyone packs away their things. Sanji hurriedly tries to shove his things in his bag to get out before the teacher gets to his test. He sees his hopes dashed as his teacher pauses at one page and his mouth presses into a thin unimpressed line. Dark eyes flick up at him and his teacher orders him to stay put, he'll speak to him after class. Sanji wilts miserably and sluggishly packs away the rest of his things, knowing that there is no escape.

Sanji trudges to his teacher's desk, the offensively blank test sitting on the top of the pile.

"I don't know what happened, can I retake it?" Sanji asks, anxiously rubbing the back of his neck.

"I can think of another way that you can make up the extra credit." His teacher says with a smile.

"Oh, fucking seriously Sanji? You only just found out what I do for a job and you've got to develop a kink about it?" his teacher's voice snaps Sanji out of his daze. He looks up to see Zoro leaning back in the chair, looking at him unimpressed, his clean crisp white shirt and black tie so different from the look that he usually sports.

This is...

"A dream, dumbass." Zoro finishes for him, leaning back on his chair.

"Oh." Sanji mumbles, looking down at his skinny young hands. The room seems to wobble slightly and he can feel the pull of him waking up.

"Ah, no you don't. Stay with me, I need to talk to you." Zoro says sharply, grabbing Sanji by the front of the shirt and shoving him into the desk as Zoro gets up and stands in front of him, his arms caging Sanji in on either side. Sanji flushes an embarrassed red, Zoro is so much taller than him now and the heat and the bulk of him are almost intimidating. He stares numbly at Zoro's white shirt and knows that he has seen what Zoro looks like naked, in that photo.

He focuses on the tie before him and the strong and tan neck that it's around, he wants to reach up and kiss the skin there.

"Tch. One track mind cook." Zoro chuckles lowly, making Sanji's face flush red.

"So, I'm dreaming." Sanji acknowledges, settling himself to sit on the edge of Zoro's desk. Zoro sits down on his chair in front of Sanji and nods.

"But now that I know that I can do anything I want... right?" He thinks aloud. Zoro rolls his eyes and grabs a ruler off of the desk, whacking Sanji sharply on the thigh with it. Sanji squeaks in shock and isn't sure if he likes that or not.

"Stop being such a pervert, I said I had to talk to you." Zoro admonishes him.

"Well, you're me. What can you possibly have to say to me?" Sanji points out with a frown. He'd much rather be having fun with a dreamed up version of Zoro than having some kind of serious conversation with him.

"Because you're in love with me, or rather, with him. You know that you shouldn't be." Dream Zoro explains, reclining back in his chair, his legs widening apart slightly and tempting Sanji to settle himself into his dream version of Zoro's lap. His words however put him off.

"Yeah, I know. I've already had enough nightmares about where you reject me to put me off of ever asking you out." He pouts, looking away sulkily.

"You've never considered what would happen if I say yes though." Zoro points out quietly, instantly getting Sanji's attention.

Zoro stands up smoothly, leaning into Sanji's space.

"Think about it. I'm forever checking on you, and you know I'm not like that with anyone else. I said to you that I think you might not be wrong about the whole love thing and I went to ask Robin's advice but didn't tell you what I was asking her about. Put two and two together, you're smart." The dream Zoro purrs, leaning in and running a warm finger up Sanji's throat and under his chin, tilting Sanji's face up to him.

"I- I can't let myself think that. I need to get over you." Sanji whimpers, his eyes stuck on Zoro's soft looking lips.

"You do, but I like you too. You need to realise that." Zoro says and kisses Sanji. Sanji gasps into it, immediately breaking his resolve as Zoro gives him what he wants. Zoro pulls back slightly and after biting Sanji's lip he stands up fully. Sanji is breathless, he knows that this is a dream but goddamnit he just wants...

"You already know what happens if you tell me what you want and I say no, or something worse. You've never thought about what would happen if I say yes though, you just assume it will be magical." Zoro sighs. Sanji frowns, he doesn't get it. It would be magical if Zoro would be with him.

"Fine, it looks like I am going to have to teach you after all." Zoro says and turns to the blackboard behind him, picking up chalk and drawing a large square on the board.

"So the two of you start going out." Zoro begins and the inside of the square comes to life, showing a blurry chalk drawing of the two of you. You're walking along a street at night and talking about something. The view flicks close enough to your faces to see you nervously asking him something, he blushes but nervously nods. There's a second or two of awkward pause before the slightly sketchy Zoro leans forward and kisses in a surge of anxious emotion. Sanji's heart flutters in his chest as the chalk version of himself gets to kiss Zoro, gets to ask him out and get told yes.

"Believe me, I've thought about that." Sanji sighs wistfully, looking back at the teacher version of Zoro.

"Lesson's not over." Zoro says sharply, jerking at Sanji's tie and making him look at the board again, though he keeps hold of the tie. Sanji whines in his throat, ok, so perhaps he is a little kinky where Zoro is concerned.

The chalkboard flashes visions of the two of them together, closer than they usually are, obviously in a relationship close. There's a vision of the two of them ripping clothes off of one another, kissing and biting in equal measure. They're almost fighting just as much as they are making out, well, Zoro did say that he likes someone that can earn it. The chalkboard version of him loses the battle but doesn't look in the slightest bit put out as the chalk version of Zoro grinds him into the mattress.

"Oh god..." Sanji whines, "I want that..."

"No, you want more than that. You want him to love you, remember?" The teacher Zoro reminds him. He huffs, freezing the scene on the chalkboard and leaving Sanji to stare at it whilst he picks the chalk up again and starts writing next to it on the board, he writes lines of quotes and Sanji reads them.

"I want so badly for someone to love me, Zoro." - Sanji

"Anyone with a heart would love you so much Zoro." - Sanji

"You're not really convincing me to start [loving someone]. Why would I let someone make me feel like that?" - Zoro

"Stop dating other idiots who don't appreciate you." -Zoro

"He won't love you back, he's not built like that." The teacher version of Zoro says quietly.

"He loves you as a friend, and he's attracted to you as well, you made sure of that. But he's just not made for romantic love, he'll be your lover and your friend. But he'll never love you, and that's what you want. You'll break both of you trying to get that." He says softy. Behind him the chalkboard shows arguments and cliché romantic gestures, as if Zoro has learnt romance from a film but doesn't feel it. Sanji's heart breaks a little inside, even in the best version of things he still loses.

"So what then? Get over you and do nothing? That's what I was already planning, but thanks for showing me another horrifying reason not to pursue this." Sanji grumbles miserably. How fucked up is he that he starts having a kinky student teacher dream about Zoro and it turns into heartbreak? Jesus he's a wreck.

"No, play it my way. Be my best friend and fuck me too, don't get your heart involved at all. That way when I don't love you either, you're fine. You're never going to get what you want but you can get a hell of a lot closer than you are right now, don't you think?" Zoro grins, leaning in to Sanji and putting a large hand on Sanji's narrow hip, holding him in place against the desk.

"I don't know if I-" Sanji hesitates but Zoro presses a hand into his shoulder and pins him down onto the desk. In that magical way that dreams work their clothes are all gone without either of them having to stop to take them off, if only real life worked that smoothly.

Zoro's mouth is on him, hot and warm around him, and Sanji arches up off of the desk, scattering papers in his haste to tangle his fingers into Zoro's hair. Zoro's tongue trails up the underside of Sanji's dick as he pulls away. He presses a hand to Sanji's bare chest.

"Keep that in your chest and you don't have to keep this in your pants." Zoro grins at him gorgeously.

Sanji jerks awake in bed, painfully hard and his head spinning. What the fuck kind of dream was that? Did his subconscious just tell him to be fuck buddies with Zoro? Operating on autopilot his hand slides down into his pyjamas and wraps around himself, he hisses at the memory of watching that drawn version of Zoro top him. He remembers how that Zoro had shoved him into the mattress and made him cry out for it. He wonders if the real Zoro would do that, whether he'd be left with bites and hickeys as proof, if he'd have scratches on his skin and bruises on his hips. He wants so badly to feel what it's like when Zoro gets close, when his movements become jerky and uncoordinated as he tries to hold himself back from coming first.

He twists his head and bites into the collar of his pyjamas, trying to muffle the cry building in his throat as his hand moves in time with his imagination. He wants Zoro so goddamn bad. Maybe he should just do what Zoro does, they'd still be friends, he just wouldn't have to fantasise like this because Zoro would be right there. He remembers the dream teacher Zoro's lips on him and that's all he needs for his body to arch and find release, leaving him panting, sticky and exhausted in his bed.


	13. Chapter 13

Zoro actually likes this domesticity shit, if Sanji asks him to do something lame then he actually jumps at the chance because doing normal shit with Sanji just feels like they're somehow more real. Before if any of his lovers had asked him to come with them to get suits or to go to a supplier with them Zoro wouldn't have even considered it but with Sanji there's no question. He goes because it's Sanji and he just likes being near him, it's like a contact high but instead of getting high it just makes him happy. Contact contentment, he likes that.

The back of Sanji's car is filled with tablecloths, packed in every available space and Zoro keeps having to turn around the shove them down so that Sanji can see out of the rear view as they drive. They're all for the Baratie of course and they need to be cleaned. For some reason that Zoro can't get Sanji talking about without it devolving into a bitch fit, the company that usually cleans them isn't doing so and so the two of them are going to have to get to the cleaners to get them done manually.

The two of them take up every machine in the fucking laundry place and Zoro has to keep rushing to the nearby shop to break notes into coins until the owner eventually tells him to fuck off and get change elsewhere. By the end of it the two of them are sat in the steamy laundry room, the smell of detergent fragrancing the air and more junk food and drinks between them than either of them need or want.

A loud crack of thunder makes Sanji jolt on the top of the washing machine that he's sitting cross legged on. The sky outside has been dark for hours, not through the time of night but through the storm that's been building all day and fucking with the pressure in Zoro's sinuses and inner ears, he just wants the goddamn thing to break because it's giving him a pressure headache.

"Jumpy." Zoro remarks casually.

"Go fuck yourself." Sanji snaps back defensively and hums to himself for a second, shuffling through the cards in his hand.

"I think I won't, I mean, this is a public place after all..." Zoro says as if he's thinking about it.

"Shut your yap. Two jacks." Sanji says kicking Zoro and putting two cards face down on the pile on the machine between them. Zoro glances down at his hand. He doesn't recall playing more than two jacks in the past so... yeah... ok, Sanji could be telling the truth.

"Hm. Three queens." Zoro grins, placing them down challengingly, daring Sanji to call his bluff. He'll be wrong of course though, the cards he's putting down are actually queens, he's not lying at all and if Sanji makes the mistake of calling it then he's going to have to pick up that whoooooole pile.

Sanji makes a show of thinking about it a lot. Thunder rumbles in the dark outside the laundry place a distant flashes of lightning flare outside.

"Okay, I'll let you have that. Two queens." Sanji says looking at Zoro like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth as if he hadn't just claimed to put down enough queens for their to be five in their deck. Zoro's jaw drops open, the gall of it!

"You fucking cheat! CHEAT!" Zoro yells with a face splitting grin. Outside the rain suddenly drops like someone has turned on a million pressure hoses in the sky, within moments Zoro feels the pressure drop and the ache in his head starts to recede.

"Oh thank fuck for that." He groans, rubbing under his eyes on either side of his nose as the relief starts to flood his system.

"Better?" Sanji asks softly, his hand coming out and touching Zoro's jaw. His fingers are so smooth and soft and Zoro shudders a little despite himself as Sanji's thumb ghosts over his cheekbone.

"Yeah." He breathes against Sanji's wrist. A surge of want rolls in him like a wave, he's stopped ignoring them or denying them now. Ever since he had dinner with Robin he's come to accept the fact that he's fallen for his best friend.

"That's what you get for letting people punch you in your face, you fuck up your sinuses and shit like this happens." Sanji says gently, running a finger over the slight bump in Zoro's nose that he's had most of his adult life.

"I didn't let myself get punched in the face. Anyway, quit changing the subject, you cheated. Pick up." Zoro argues, shaking Sanji's hand off before he does something regrettable and listens to the butterflies swarming in his stomach.

"You think I lied to you about the cards I put down?" Sanji purrs with a grin and his eyes sparking with mischief. Fuck, Zoro just wants to kiss him. He wants to tangle his fingers in that stupid blonde hair and smash his mouth to Sanji's. He wants to hear the noise he'll make when they kiss, will he startle or will he whine or moan and sink into it? He wants to know, to hear it and to feel that. Still, that's not what he's here for and he needs to focus.

"Well, yeah. Three and two is five, dumbfuck." He responds.

There's a snap of lightning, so close it makes Zoro's ears ring and with a bang all of the lights in the ceiling blow, plunging them into startled darkness.

"Oh fuck." Sanji breathes in the blackness.

"Are the machines still on?" Sanji asks after a second. Zoro looks around and sees that the little lights on the displays of all of the machines are still on and he thinks that he can hear them working over the sound of the rain. Less than a second after Sanji has asked the machine between them where their cards are resting suddenly switches to a spin cycle, flinging their cards to the floor along with any chance Zoro had at catching Sanji cheating at their game.

"You still cheated, cook." Zoro grumbles in the dark. He leans forward blindly, groping for their cards in the sudden darkness of the room. His forehead glances off of Sanji's in the dark and the cook yelps and pulls back.

"Oh shit, sorry!" Zoro apologises hastily, crawling forward on top of the juddering machine to reach Sanji. He puts his hand down on something warm and hard though and he pauses in confusion.

"Your thick head has probably bruised my beautiful face. Is there any reason your hand is on my knee marimo?" Sanji prompts him, his voice sounding smug.

"I can't see a fucking thing, don't bitch at me." Zoro grumbles, moving his hand to the right. And... huh. That had felt like Sanji's right knee which means that his hand is now... between Sanji's legs.

"You're fucking lost aren't you?" Sanji sniggers, leaning forward to get his face right in Zoro's space. He can feel Sanji's warm breath on his skin and the most teasing hint of the seam of Sanji's jeans on his forearm and Sanji shifts to make his point as to just where Zoro has planted his stupid hand. God, a little further forward and Sanji would practically be grinding on his arm. If only.

"No." He mutters and feels the breathy huff of Sanji's laugh ghost across his skin. He can locate him now. Zoro turns his head and just feels the tip of Sanji's nose against his own, the blonde pulls back slightly in surprise.

"Oh, so you meant to do that huh?" Sanji teases.

Fuck it.

Zoro leans forward, licks his lips, tilts his head slightly and presses his lips to Sanji's. The blonde lets out a startled gasp and Zoro leans in a little more, his hand coming up from between Sanji's legs and touching the blonde's jaw. Sanji shudders under his touch and within a second he's kissing back. His best friend is kissing him back.

Zoro doesn't have words for how this feels. Obviously he's kissed people before but it's always been in lust, out of a need to get the person who's making him feel so good as close to himself as physically possible, it was just another way of expressing need. But this... this is sweet and needy and meaningful. They come apart a little but don't really part. Zoro surges forward again, if they break the kiss then they're going to have to talk about this and Zoro doesn't want that. He just wants Sanji.

Sanji is his best fucking friend in the whole world. The blonde kicked his way into his life like he owned the fucking joint and completely dominated his mind. Zoro's not a cold heartless bastard and he cares about his friends deeply, but Sanji just owned him like no one else. He'd do anything the blonde asked and he owes so much to him, he knows that he's done plenty for Sanji too, it's not like he's beholden to the cook because he feels obligated or any shit like that. It's just so much evidence for how much he means to him.

He moves up onto his knees, his hands on either side of Sanji's delicate but masculine face as he keeps him close. He kisses him a little deeper and Sanji sighs and lets Zoro's tongue in. He wants to communicate just how much this means. He's never... never been in love with anyone in his life. Oh sure he loves his family, he loved Kuina but this is a completely different creature, even if it has the same name. If he had to fall in love with anyone he's so glad that it's Sanji. He doesn't want to lose what they have and he feels greedy for it but he also wants to much more too.

Eventually they have to pull apart and Sanji's warm hands are on Zoro's wrists. He keeps his hands on Sanji though, one rubbing soft strokes on his jaw with his thumb and the other brushing through the cropped blonde hair at the back of his head.

"Wow." Sanji says softly into the darkness.

"Yeah." Zoro agrees a little breathlessly.

A note of fear strikes through him, he really hopes he's not fucked this up. He doesn't want to lose Sanji, not at all.

"We're... we're still good right? Still friends?" He questions nervously.

"Yeah, we're friends." Sanji laughs gently and Zoro gets the feel that he's missing something but he trusts Sanji enough to tell him if he'd done something wrong.

"So... can I... kiss you again?" Zoro asks hopefully, having moved close enough as he asks that he's almost painting the words onto Sanji's mouth.

Instead of an answer Sanji is the one who leans forward and kisses him. To Zoro's surprise Sanji overwhelms him, surging forward with strength that topples the startled Zoro back onto his ass and then his back across the machine he'd been sitting on before. The few cards that had survived the spin cycle of the machine between them get scattered across the floor by Zoro's foot.

Sanji pours his body over Zoro's like honey, melting into him and getting everywhere. Hands roam over his body, feeling every inch and Zoro just stills and revels in it. He likes a partner who has a certain give and take and challenges him. Sure he wants to hold Sanji down and make him scream but he also wants Sanji to do the same with him. Before he'd thought that required strength, not that Sanji isn't strong because fuck he's seen the guy fight, but Sanji is doing it by overloading Zoro's senses. He's staring up blankly at the ceiling that he can't even make out, it's so dark that he may as well be blindfolded and yet it makes him rely on all of his other senses. All of them however are just returning back the call of Sanji, Sanji, Sanji.

He can smell the soap the cook uses and the soft woodsy aftershave he uses, there are hints of things that Sanji has cooked during the day in there too. The blonde's hands are all over him, pushing up Zoro's shirt with one hand and pinning his wrist above his head to a machine below him. The cook has a thigh between Zoro's and the way he's pressing forward to flutter kisses on Zoro's throat means that it's a perfect kind of teasing pressure. Sanji is pretty quiet but Zoro can hear his own voice echoing off of the metal and linoleum of the laundry place's interior, he can hear what Sanji's doing to him and he can only hope that it affects Sanji as much as it's affecting him.

He whines, finding Sanji's lips again and kissing him. Is he ever going to get bored of kissing Sanji? He can't imagine it, not at all. How could anyone? Shit, how could any of the people who have been with Sanji ever have left him? He's been emotionally intimate with him for like... forever, or so it feels. Sanji's honest and sweet and just amazing but now like this he's brilliant. Well, good thing those idiots gave him up, this way Zoro gets a shot.

The lights flicker back on, apparently the bulbs weren't blown, it must have just been the fuses resetting from the power surge. Above him Sanji blinks owlishly in the light, surprise by its sudden return. Zoro laughs at his stupid expression and thinks that Sanji had a point about relationships, he's pretty fucking excited that he'll get to have one with Sanji of all people. Although, shit, he's not asked that has he?

"Uh, shit. Sanji." He begins awkwardly.

"I don't... I don't want this to be just a stupid one-time thing, right?" Zoro adds to clarify.

"Me neither, marimo." Sanji beams down at him and Zoro can feel the way that Sanji relaxes as he says it. He must have been worried about it too.

"Awesome." Zoro beams and leans up and kisses... well... kisses his boyfriend. There's a first for everything, right?


	14. Chapter 14

Sanji smooths out the tablecloth in the Baratie and remembers the feel of Zoro's lips against his own, he remembers being straddled in Zoro's lap and feeling Zoro's skin under his hands. It's not just that the tablecloth that he's putting on the table is one of the ones that they laundered together last night, he's been thinking about Zoro almost non stop since then.

Zoro's mouth felt about a million times better than it had in any dream he'd ever had. There was just so much more detail in real life. There was the feel of Zoro's soft eyelashes fanned out on his tan skin when his eyes were shut or how Sanji would feel them flick against him when Zoro dozily opened his eyes to look at Sanji with a kiss drunk and happy expression. There was the feeling of Zoro's arms solidly wrapped around him, holding him in place against Zoro. They weren't restraining at all and Sanji had known full well that if he'd pulled away Zoro would have let him, yet somehow within the warm circle of the man's arms things had felt better than they had in years. No dream could do justice to that.

Speaking of dreams Sanji can't help but remember the dream with Zoro as a teacher, where he told Sanji that there was no way they'd ever date, even if they did get together. The warning and considerable evidence that Zoro just isn't built that way. Sanji has no idea what to think, on the one hand Zoro had asked if they were still friends. What did that mean? Was Zoro just scared that he'd fucked up by kissing his best friend and wanting to make sure that everything was ok or was he trying to reiterate that this was a friends with benefits kind of thing? Sanji has no idea what to make of it. Really he should just try to stop overanalysing the whole thing and just enjoy happiness where he finds it, goodness knows that in his life it's often been fleeting.

"You can stare at that tablecloth all you like, it's not going to help you find where you left your brain." Zoro's voice says teasingly.

Sanji whips around and there Zoro is, right behind him in the Baratie with a smug little smile plastered on his face. A million feelings war within Sanji; lust, love, wariness, confusion, hope, happiness... he could go on. He settles on obstinate though.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sanji snorts, folding his arms defensively.

"I mean, you've been staring down at that thing since I came in a few moments ago. You didn't even hear me come in here, it's like your brain just rolled out of your head and left you there with your idiot mouth open." Zoro grins. Sanji frowns, he supposes he didn't hear Zoro come in, or else how did he get in here? He certainly wasn't here a moment ago, or what felt like just a moment ago. Still, never let being wrong about something get in the way of a good comeback.

"I didn't hear you complaining about my idiot mouth last night." Sanji points out with more than just a hint of smugness. He watches as Zoro's eyes widen in surprise and Sanji delights at the pleased smirk that pulls at the edge of Zoro's mouth.

"No, you didn't." Zoro concedes, his smirk widening and his eyes flashing darkly with mischief. Sanji sincerely hopes that mischief involves him.

"Well then." Sanji responds haughtily, though he's suddenly at a loss as where to go from here.

"What do you want anyway?" Sanji adds, with his best friendly hostility. Zoro's grin spreads wider and he moves quickly, wrapping his arms around Sanji's side in a side-on hug, he rests his chin on Sanji's shoulder and smiles at him with pointy teeth.

"You're my best friend you know that riiiight?" Zoro purrs in his 'I want something' voice. Sanji's too busy focusing on the words rather than the way Zoro's saying them to really take it all in, plus Zoro's arms around him again are more than distracting him. What does it mean though? Is Zoro just trying to get on his good side for a favour or is this him reminding Sanji that they're just friends? Is he trying to be subtle about it so that Sanji doesn't get the wrong idea and fall in love with Zoro? If that's his intention then he's several months too late but... well.

"What do you want?" Sanji asks suspiciously.

"Go out with me. Let's go drinking tonight, just not at that bar where you nearly kicked that guy's face off. I know another good place, I'll text you the address and I can meet you there after you get off work?" Zoro smiles up at Sanji. Fuck, why did he have to use the words 'go out with me'?!

"Yeah, ok. I could use a drink, and you can always keep up." He agrees with as much cool as he can muster.

"Awesome." Zoro says with a big wide smile.

"Right, I'd better get back to class, I'd look pretty bad if my kids showed up before me!" Zoro chuckles and walks off out of the Baratie door with a wide wave. Sanji waves back and watches him go. As much as he likes watching Zoro walk away he can't help but feel frustrated. Are they going out as friends like they did before or is this a date?

Sanji gets off of work at nine and by that time Zoro has already texted him the address of the bar that they're meeting in. Of course, not knowing if he's going to a friendly night out on the town or going on a first date does rather complicate Sanji's wardrobe choices. Eventually he resigns himself to picking a nice shirt and some classy jeans, safe in the knowledge that Zoro probably won't notice what he's wearing anyway, oblivious idiot.

He gets to the bar at quarter to ten and finds Zoro sitting at the bar drinking by himself, Sanji is pleased to note that at least this time no meatheads are hitting on him. Zoro perks up when he sees him and waves him over, despite his warring mind Sanji smiles and relaxes.

"Hey, I was starting to think you'd got lost." Zoro teases him warmly.

"Tch, stop talking about yourself idiot, it's rude." Sanji mocks him back in return.

Whilst Sanji takes off his coat Zoro manages to grab the bartender and pay for one of Sanji's favourite pale ales, it's all golden looking and delicious and Sanji can already feel his mouth watering just looking at it.

"Long day? You're looking at that beer like you've never seen anything you wanted more in your life." Zoro grins. He picks up both of their drinks and leads Sanji over to one of the free booths, it's just as well as a whole herd of bros have just come into the bar and if they'd stayed where they were neither of them would have been able to hear themselves think, much less talk to each other.

"Usual, lots of being on my feet, idiot customers, nothing new." Sanji shrugs, sliding into the booth and taking his ale back off of Zoro. He takes his first glorious pull of it and feels the cool liquid coat the inside of his throat, soothing him and making his taste buds tingle with pleasure.

"Ah, god." Sanji sighs in bliss, putting the beer down and resting his head on the warm wood of the table. He still doesn't know if this is a date or not, but right now he's happy. He's got a man he loves with him, good company, good booze. For now, he's happy.

"What about you?" Sanji asks, realising that the questions have all been pretty one sided so far and he should really be more considerate. Zoro's expression darkens and he breaks eye contact to glare at the wall and down a little more of his beer.

"Zoro?" Sanji prompts with a frown, he doesn't like this.

"I don't want to talk about it, if I talk about it I'm gonna get pissed off as fuck and I don't want-" Zoro shakes his head sharply.

"Tonight is supposed to be fun." Zoro finishes, looking right at Sanji again. His heart flutters in his chest. Still, Zoro is acting pissed off and unhappy, no matter what he says about it.

"Don't you think that talking about it might make you feel better?" Sanji asks reasonably. He knows Zoro, when Zoro someone or something has pissed off he gets grumpy. Then he gets angrier when Sanji makes him talk about it but after he has then he calms down. He's always much happier for it at the end but the idiot still hasn't learnt it.

"No." Zoro pouts, idiot.

"Ok, was it something that happened?" Sanji guesses, it looks like he's going to have to get this out of Zoro twenty questions style. Hm, no real reaction from Zoro except for an exasperated look. Well, if Zoro doesn't want him playing kids games to get his problems out then he should talk about them like a fucking adult shouldn't he?

"Something someone said then?" He guesses again.

"Cut it out." Zoro mutters and drinks his beer.

"Definitely something someone said. Someone at work I'm guessing because you seemed fine the last time I saw you and you're not glaring daggers at anyone here." He reasons, working his way through the logic. Zoro looks away and the slight downward quirk of his lips alarms Sanji. Zoro isn't angry, he's upset. Okay, knowing Zoro he's at least a little bit angry too but still, he's upset.

"I need to get a new beer." The green haired man mutters, starting to slide out of his side of the booth. Before he can get to the edge though Sanji slams his foot into the back of it, blocking Zoro's way out with his leg.

"Sanji..." Zoro sighs, looking down at Sanji's leg.

"Tell me, someone upset you and I want to know what they said to get under your skin like this." the cook says sternly.

"It was just... another teacher was running his mouth is all. Talking shit about things he doesn't know anything about." Zoro answers, resting his hand on Sanji's ankle where it bars his path out. Sanji should worry that Zoro is trying to pull his leg aside, but he's not. Zoro's touch is light, like Zoro is just seeking out the body contact without thinking about it. He's not even looking Sanji in the eye so he knows that it's serious.

Sanji may need to murder someone, he just needs to find out who and specifically why.

"Quit looking at me like that." Zoro orders him, still not looking at Sanji.

"You're not looking at me, you don't know what way I'm looking at you." the blonde points out wryly.

"FINE. It apparently wasn't just the head teacher who saw that photo, at least one of the department heads did too." Zoro answers, his hand momentarily tightening on Sanji's ankle.

Sanji drags a harsh breath in, he feels like he could spit fire. Hell, he may just do. He wants to become a giant fucking dragon and burn that asshole's house down.

"You look like a fucking serial killer right now Sanji, do you wanna chill out a bit. It's not a big deal, he's a fucking bigot and it's not like he implied that I was a danger to the kids or anything." Zoro reasons.

"Maybe I should consider a career change because I feel like killing that guy would be real fucking swell right now. Roronoa Zoro don't you fucking DARE try to imply that this guy isn't so bad because he didn't equate liking men to being a fucking pedophile! The gall of that motherfucker to even say anything at all to you, you're supposed to be coworkers!" Sanji snarls. That is it, he is definitely going to murder this guy.

"Sanji, it's fine. It just got to me a little, it's fine. I'm a grown man, I've had worse before and like I said, I'm fine." Zoro insists.

"No one who's fine says 'fine' that often." He says through gritted teeth.

"Do you see why I didn't want to bring this up? Now you're pissed off and I feel like shit." Zoro says, falling back against the back of the booth in exasperation.

"I'm sorry. Shit like this just makes me so mad, you don't deserve it and it's not okay." the cook says, letting his foot drop just like his mood. He didn't mean to make Zoro feel worse at all, he'd been trying to make Zoro feel better by getting it off of his chest. Zoro slides out of the booth, but instead of making his way up to the bar he instead walks over to Sanji's side of the booth. He puts his hand to Sanji's jaw and tilts his head towards him. Zoro kisses him and butterflies explode in Sanji's stomach, he's still not used to this really happening and not just being something that he dreams about.

"You can't protect me from everything you know." Zoro says in a reasonable tone of voice that Sanji strongly dislikes.

"I want to, no one should ever be mean to you or irritate you in any way. Ever." Sanji insists with a pout that makes Zoro laugh.

"World doesn't work that way." Zoro chuckles and the cook feels pleased to see Zoro looking a little brighter.

"Fuck the world." Sanji retorts and scowls.

"That would take a while and probably be a bad idea, you know, STD's and all." he points out with a laugh.

"Buy me another drink whilst you're fucking off, also, fuck off." the blonde retorts and shoves Zoro away with his foot. His friend/boyfriend's laughter floats over to Sanji as he walks away.

Zoro seems happier now at least, though Sanji has no idea how he made that the case. As for him, he feels heavier. He supposes that perhaps Zoro's burden truly was lightened, a problem shared is a problem halved after all. Zoro is right, as much as Sanji hates to admit it he knows that he can't keep Zoro from every ignorant son of a bitch with an opinion. What he can do though it make Zoro happy enough to forget about it and not let it continue to bother him.

He rests his cheek in his hand and watches Zoro at the bar, he watches as Zoro leans on the bar top, stretching over to point at a particular bottle that he wants. His jeans stretch tight over his ass and Sanji's pulse quickens. His mind clicks back to the dilemma that he's had almost the entire night and predates his anger at Zoro's godawful coworker. Namely; is this a date or not? He bites his lip. Does he want this to be a date?

On the one hand the answer is an obvious yes. He's been pining for Zoro since for fucking ever and having the opportunity to live that out makes him absolutely giddy. Even so, he's dubious about Zoro's ability to date. If Zoro's never done it then why would he start now? If that is what he's doing then is Zoro only wanting to date him because he knows that Sanji doesn't do the no strings thing? That said, Zoro could ask the same of him. Sanji is leaving himself open to seeing Zoro with no strings because he suspects that's the only way that he can be with him.

If this is a date and Zoro is dating him for the sake of Sanji's sensibilities then how long can that last? If Zoro is right and he just doesn't 'get' dating or the whole monogamy thing then isn't this whole venture doomed to failure? It's hardly going to be like Zoro's views will have taken a complete 180 since they talked on the subject last.

If Zoro is just seeing him as a best friends with benefits thing then Sanji would be a certified moron not to wonder how long he can take that. How hard it will be to not tell Zoro that he loves him. How much would be different? Will Zoro stay the night with him or will they just have sex and part ways until the next time they see each other? Will Zoro be sweet with him and will he be open to letting Sanji spoil him when he wants to? He's always been able to make romantic gestures with past partners but will he be able to handle it if Zoro won't allow it?

Is this whole thing a big fucking mistake?

"I have a plan!" Zoro says brightly, returning with their drinks. Zoro has two beers, one of Sanji's and one for himself. He also has shots of... something which he puts down next to the drinks.

"Your plan involves shots, I am instantly dubious about your plan." He deadpans.

"Shut your mouth and drink up, I'm taking you somewhere. It'll be an adventure!" Zoro beams in a way that reminds Sanji of Luffy.

After the two of them finish their drinks Zoro pulls him from the bar by his wrist. Their breath mists in the night air and Zoro looks left and right before deciding on left and pulling Sanji along that way.

"So not only am I dubious about your decision on starting this adventure with shots I'm also dubious about you taking me somewhere when only you are navigating." Sanji teases.

A fist suddenly snags in the front of Sanji's shirt and he finds himself yanked closer to Zoro with their lips suddenly pressed together. Zoro then proceeds to kiss the breath out of Sanji's lungs, leaving him trembling and wide eyed.

"Shut up." Zoro insists and then pulls him along again.

"'kay." Sanji replies weakly.

Zoro leads him downtown, or at least they end up downtown. Saying that Zoro led them there might be giving his navigation too much credit, also Sanji swears that they've passed this grocery store once already. He doesn't mind if they don't get to wherever Zoro is planning on though, it's just nice to walk with him. The two of them have been rambling on in the way that they easily do, conversation just falling effortlessly from their mouths about the dumbest things. They talk about stupid TV shows, old movies, their friends, funny customers and shit that kids say. Everything with Zoro just feels as right as breathing and at some point in their journey Zoro's hand on his wrist has turned into fingers linked together as they hold hands.

"Yes! Found it!" Zoro exclaims suddenly, making Sanji look up.

"The zoo?" Sanji frowns in confusion.

"Yeah, come on!" Zoro says, his smile gleeful as he runs towards it.

"Zoro. It's... half past midnight, the zoo is shut." He says slowly, starting to suspect that Zoro has lost his mind. The idiot leads him around the tall wall that surrounds the zoo.

"I know, that's the best time to see it!" the idiot beams, walking further along the base of the wall.

"No... no it's not. See, there are these things called opening hours and- WHOA!" Sanji's sarcastic explanation is cut short when Zoro suddenly drops down and grabs him at the knees before standing up.

"Less bitching, more climbing." Zoro insists, pushing Sanji against the wall.

"No way! This is crazy!" Sanji exclaims. Zoro narrows his eyes at him and then before Sanji knows it he's flying through the air. Thanks to his acrobatic abilities he manages to land on his feet as he skids across the floor inside the zoo.

"How are you gonna get over genius?" Sanji calls back over the wall.

"Not so LOUD, haven't you ever snuck into anywhere after hours?" Zoro hisses back from the outside.

"No, I have never broken into a zoo in the night, clearly I have lived an impoverished life until now. The point remains that I am TRAPPED IN A ZOO ALONE! Can you even get over here?!" Sanji snarls angrily. If he ends up stuck there until morning and gets arrested he will be so pissed off. It will be the worse maybe a date that he's ever had.

There's a thud and a skid sound and Sanji's eyes widen as fingers appear at the top of the wall. A sound like skidding boots on brick reaches him and then suddenly Zoro it sat atop the wall. He drops down next to Sanji with catlike grace and the cook is oddly turned on.

"So, my point about us being locked in the zoo still stands." Sanji says after a moment or two.

"So does my point about you shutting up. Come on." Zoro insists and drags him along.

With the light of the stars and the moon as well as the small security lights Sanji is able to see where he is going but not much of the exhibits.

Zoro pulls him to a stop by a large cage and stands behind him, his hands on Sanji's hips.

"Tell me when you see it." Zoro whispers in Sanji's ear.

Sanji wants to ask him what he's looking for but he supposes that it defeats the point. His eyes scan the dark enclosure, he can see branches and rocks, a tree... but no animal. He leans as far forward as the barrier will let him get to the bars of the enclosure. He peers around but just as he is about to give up he feels hot breath run along his cheek, but it's not Zoro's.

He turns his head to the side and suddenly, in the inky dark, he sees two dark golden eyes just a few inches from the bars.

Sanji has the common sense not to startle too bad, like yelling or doing anything that might startle or upset the large feline close to him. His eyes adjust to the dark but he still can't see much detail on the thing.

"It's a puma, they're so much more active at night. When you go see them in the day they're just dozing away doing fuck all." Zoro says quietly behind Sanji's shoulder.

The big cat blinks lazily and shifts, looking at Zoro now instead Sanji realises now that it's not so much that he can't see the creature, just that it's so dark that it's hard to pick out. His eyes have adjusted enough now that it's more like he can see a big cat shaped void in the surroundings of the enclosure, and boy is it a big cat indeed. He's stunned at how long it's tail is and how silently it moves as it gets up and walks off to the other side of the enclosure with loping feline grace.

"How do you know all of that?" Sanji asks in awe, straightening up and looking at Zoro in the semi darkness.

"Hah, do you know how many times I've been to this goddamn zoo? It's far better without the sound of yelling children, I assure you." Zoro answers with a quiet laugh.

"Have you ever been in here at night before?" Sanji asks. Initially he feels an instinctive surge of jealousy, the sort of vague regret about doing something that someone has done with a past lover before. But no, Zoro hasn't ever dated anyone before, Sanji will literally be his first for anything relationship related. For an entirely selfish reason he feels a warm glow come over himself with this.

"Nuh uh. Thought it'd be a cool idea though. C'mon, I want to show you the other animals!" He says, pulling Sanji away by his hand in a frankly adorable display of glee.

Zoro takes him around all of the big cat exhibits and Sanji watches them with stunned eyes. He's been to the zoo before, as a kid though. He remembers being pretty interested by the animals but thinking that a lot of them looked sad or were just boring because they slept all the time. This trip to the zoo couldn't be farther from that idea. All of the big cats are awake, stalking each other, playing and attacking their oversized toys. Sanji watches a mother lion and her two cubs playing tug of war with an old tractor tyre and chasing each other around playfully. The mother even lets the little lion cubs 'catch' her a few times and Sanji watches and tries not to laugh as she feigns being pinned by the tiny cats. The tigers are magnificent too, swimming through the water in ways that Sanji is more accommodated to seeing dolphins do than cats.

To his surprise there are also animals awake and alert that he hadn't expected. Apparently kangaroos are nocturnal, or at least nocturnal enough that they bound across their enclosure with all the energy of small excitable children.

It's too dark to read the signs by each animal but Zoro tells him what he remembers from reading them out to his school kids before. Apparently his skill at herding large groups of children and impressing them with his apparent "coolness" makes it so that he is almost always chosen to help out with field days. Because of this the directionally challenged Zoro has this place memorised like the back of his hand.

If Sanji didn't know Zoro better then he'd say that this was a fucking smooth and cunning choice of date. He's pretty sure that it's a date now... he thinks. Zoro gets a chance to be exciting and daring but also to show off his knowledge and skills. It's bragging without bragging.

But Zoro just isn't like that. Sanji knows him better than that and it makes the whole date way nicer. He knows that Zoro has taken him here because he thinks that it's a cool place that Sanji would like. Plus, it's somewhere that they can get into for free (albeit illegally), it fits in with Sanji's work hours (again, mainly because of the breaking and entering) and it's something he knows. Zoro is doing this with him because he wants to.

Sanji doesn't have to worry about all of the usual date problems either. Should he buy food or should they split? Are ice creams sweet and frivolously fun or are they childish? None of the stalls are open so there's no worry there, there's no pressure. There aren't any other people watching their date and making Sanji feel self conscious and they have no one to distract them. It's perfect.

When Zoro takes him to the wolf area of the zoo though Sanji is a little less keen. Unlike the lions and the other big cats the wolves aren't really in an enclosure to speak of at all. It's more a patch of woodland with a walkway above it.

They start across the bridge and Sanji looks down to see a whole pack of wolves looking up at them and following their progress on almost silent padded feet. As Zoro walks along and watches them back Sanji finds himself suddenly wary of how the bridge creaks and how lightly it's suspended amongst the trees. His mind flashes back to every cheap horror werewolf flick that he's ever seen and recalls wolves jumping huge distances to rip out the throat of innocent people. He steps closer to Zoro and holds his hand tight.

"They can't... they can't get up here right?" Sanji asks in a desperate whisper, as if the wolves could possibly hear and understand what he's saying and decide to attack him now before they come up with a plan.

"I doubt it, they'd be pretty dumb to put a bridge here if they could jump this high." Zoro reasons with a small laugh.

"Sure, during the day maybe, but they're awake now! It's night!" Sanji hisses warily as one of the wolves snaps and snarls at another that gets too close to him.

"Ok, but if they could get up here and night don't you think that the zookeepers would be pissed off with having to herd wolves back into their enclosure every morning and risk getting mauled?" the other man laughs. Ok, so he has a point, that would be rather poor zoo design.

"Yeah, ok. But what if one of them gets up here by a fluke?" The blonde insists as the wolves circle below them.

Zoro smirks at him in the darkness, his teeth reflecting the light of the moon and making him seem a little demonic actually.

"I promise, oh delicate Sanji, if a wolf comes up here I will punch it and save you. You know, before you faint all daintily." the asshole mocks him.

"You'd punch an endangered animal in the face for me." Sanji says in a flat tone of voice.

"Yeah, that's how much I'd like you. That's the standard unit of measurement isn't it? Like, if I'd punch a wolf in the face for you I like you but if I'll punch a bear in the face then you pretty much have to marry me right?" Zoro laughs and punches Sanji in the arm.

"Sound legitimate to me, probably legally binding too." The blonde agrees with a nod.

Despite his most sane of intentions and how stupid he knows that this whole conversation is, Sanji is well and truly wooed.

"I know it's late but let me show you one last thing, please?" Zoro asks with bright eyes as the two of them exit the wolf enclosure.

"Well, since you insisted." Sanji says in mock reluctance.

Zoro pulls him across the zoo, away from the larger zoo animals and through the bird section. Some of the inhabitants blink owlishly at him, in the most literal sense there is. It's only when the ground starts to slope down and Zoro's hand comes to the small of Sanji's back that he realises where they're going. It's underground.

Somehow the sea part of the zoo isn't locked up or shut down overnight. As they get through the initial entranceway blue light starts to filter down from above. They're in some kind of tunnel that runs under all of the water enclosures in the whole zoo. Sanji realises that from the path they've wound around the place that the edges of the zoo are ringed with water exhibits, regardless of the themed area that they are otherwise in. The floor around those bits had been glass too, that must be where the light that's filtering down is coming from. Even so it's pretty goddamn dark down here.

"Shit, it's darker than I thought. Have you got your phone?" Zoro asks suddenly, turning to Sanji.

"Even better, it's got a torch." Sanji smiles, pulling it from his pocket and swiping his phone's lock screen up to reveal the little torch application that shines out from the flash light of his phone camera. With that done and a little petty arguing about how shit Zoro's own phone is (for the record, it is very shit and old) the two of them continue along the underground path.

All around them fish swim and arc above them in lazy waves, propelling themselves with long tails. Sharks swim in and out of the darkness and though Sanji should feel terrified being only inches from an apex predator like that he finds himself strangely enchanted.

Some of the decor is tacky, fake coral reefs in the tunnel and sparkling starfish decals on the walls but the place is magical in a way that Sanji cannot describe nor explain. He watches the fish with wide eyes and moves from section to section of the tunnel almost wordlessly.

They get to the area where the dolphins are and Zoro tells him in a quiet voice about how dolphins don't sleep, not really. Apparently they shut down one half of their brain at a time and then the other half so that they're always awake and alert but also resting when they need to. Sanji can't help but think that he could use that at work himself sometimes.

All of the fish flit away from and then back towards Sanji's little light and it feels like far too soon that they get to the end of the underwater tunnel, though he knows they've lingered there for ages. In the end Sanji is the one to say it.

"We should probably go back, I've no idea how we've not got caught already, this place should really have security guards." Sanji says softly, leaning into Zoro's side.

"Yeah, ok. Let's get to the wall and I'll boost you up." Zoro agrees and leads them away.

"Hey, I don't need you to boost me up. I can climb a wall by myself you know." Sanji insists with a puffed up air of indigence that he is only vaguely confident that he can actually back up.

"After you then." Zoro challenges as they get to the wall. Sanji takes a deep breath and then sprints at the wall and jumps. He kicks off it halfway up and uses the momentum to kick him further up the wall until he lands on the top on his feet. None of this climbing up business that Zoro did, he's just standing up there like a fucking cat that owns the joint. He looks down at Zoro with smugness radiating from his ever pore and sees the moss head looking up at him with unguarded awe and... perhaps a little bit of excitement. Did he just manage to get Zoro a little bit turned on by doing that? He's certainly gonna file that information away for later analysis.

Zoro jumps up the wall himself and has to heave himself up to the top with his hands, eventually sitting and straddling the wall as he looks up at Sanji.

"Not gonna stand up marimo? Scared of heights?" Sanji challenges loudly.

"Careful, you'll fall." Zoro says, concern evident in his tone.

"Nah, look!" Sanji laughs and spins on his heel on the top of the wall, his arms spread out in glee. He's stable as anything. If he can run through a crowded restaurant on slippery floors with armfuls of hot food and dodge children and waiters alike then this is a cakewalk.

"HEY! What are you doing up there?! You're trespassing!" A voice yells up at them, startling both him and Zoro. Sanji looks down with wide eyes and spots one of the guards that he'd been maligning so much earlier running towards them.

"Time to go." Sanji says quickly, grabbing Zoro's hand and leaping from the wall. The two of them sprint through town, losing the guard easily, the adrenaline of the chase making them dizzy with laughter by the time they get to Sanji's building. The two of them stampede up the stairs to Sanji's floor, laughing and shoving each other as they go.

Sanji eventually falls against his shut front door and grins at Zoro.

"That is the best night out I've had in... possibly forever." He beams with glee.

"I'm glad." Zoro grins back just as widely.

Sanji bites his lip nervously and then figures that it'd be far better if Zoro were to do that kind of thing. He pulls Zoro forward by his shirt and into a kiss.

The two of them make out like teenagers in Sanji's hallway for a while, hands wandering into places they probably should be. Not that Sanji can blame himself, Zoro has a fantastic ass and he wants his hands on it as much as possible.

"I'm glad you had fun." Zoro says sweetly, finally pulling back and smiling warmly at Sanji in a way that makes Sanji's gut heat and his face flush.

"I really did." Sanji agrees a little breathlessly.

"I'd better go, I'll see you tomorrow." Zoro nods and with a smile, disappears down the stairs.

What? He's going? No!

Sanji desperately tries to think of something to shout after him other than "no, please come inside and fuck my brains out" without sounding so crude. By the time that he's settled on throwing modesty out of the way and begging Zoro to fuck him until he screams the other man is long gone. He rests his head on his front door with a whine, he's hard enough that he could probably fuck his way through the door if he wanted. That was easily the best date that he's been on for his entire goddamn life and he just wants to have Zoro all to himself in every way possible too. Is it too much to ask for absolutely everything he wants right now?

With a frustrated groan he unlocks his front door and resolves to start planning their next date himself, one that will almost certainly end with the two of them naked and fucking. He is at least 95% sure that was a date. Probably. He sure as shit hopes so at any rate.


	15. Chapter 15

Zoro tends to be a morning runner rather than an evening runner, it's a good way to start his day and get everything in his head switched on. Unfortunately he doesn't always have the time to run in the morning but, not liking to miss out on his training, if he does happen to miss a morning run then he will do it in the evening. Though one of the heavy downsides to running later in the day is that he's more affected by the weather. Today for example had been hot and humid all day and by sundown the heat and the stickiness of the day is just hanging about in one horrible fog. 

As a way of avoiding the heat he's in perhaps the shortest pair of shorts that he owns. They finish partway up his thigh, pretty high in fact, and he's just said fuck it and forgone the shirt all together. He can't even be bothered to follow his normal route and time himself, he knows there's no way on this earth that he stands a chance of beating or matching his record in this gross weather, so instead he's just running wherever his feet take him and just going for time rather than anything else. Perhaps it's that his mind still lingering on his date with Sanji but his feet take him in some kind of loop past the Baratie three times. It can't be that busy though tonight because every time he passes the place Sanji is either just idly watching him through the big plate glass windows with a distracted expression or is outside smoking. He's like that the last time that Zoro runs by. 

“Are you kidding me Zoro?” Sanji snaps out from his place in the alleyway mouth. Zoro jumps a little, he'd not really even seen the blonde there. He jogs to a stop before the cook, sweat and the day's humidity clinging to his bare skin uncomfortably. He half expects the cook to make some sort of crack about how he smells from all that sweating, but to his surprise, none comes. 

“I'm not lost, I'm just... not running anywhere in particular. So don't accuse me of that.” He pants, stretching his arms over his head to alleviate the cramped space in his chest as his lungs try to suck in as much air as possible. 

Sanji just fixes him with a peculiar look that Zoro can't quite parse and eventually just flicks his cigarette to the floor and crushes it. 

“Are you about done? I'm going home.” Sanji says with a smoky exhale. 

Zoro looks at his watch. Yeah, he's been running for a respectable length of time now, he supposes that he can call it quits, especially as he's so close to home and may well have Sanji's sarcastic company for the walk back. 

“Yeah, sure.” He beams happily, endorphins making him feel good already. 

The cook fixes him with that look again, it's almost as if Sanji is trying to work out if Zoro is somehow fucking with him. Perhaps he finds Zoro's good mood suspicious or something. Whatever, Zoro doesn't care. He got his run in regardless of what the fucking weather did to try to stop him. He babbles happily as they walk about the run and the weather, whatever happens to cross his mind really. 

When they walk close to Zoro's building Sanji jerks his head towards his own, half inviting and half ordering Zoro to follow. He's ok with that. Despite the fact that they had been on a date just last night Zoro doesn't find himself in any way less interested in his best friend's company. Or...well, his boyfriend's company he supposes. That's a fucking strange thought isn't it? He's never had a boyfriend in his life and yet here Sanji is. 

He may or may not be grinning like a moron at the thought as he jogs up Sanji's stairs after him and towards Sanji's little apartment. 

He saunters through the door right after Sanji, only to be suddenly shoved back against that door as it shuts with Sanji's mouth pressed against his own. The cook is suddenly all tongue and the hand in Zoro's hair is rough. It's that perfect contradictory mess of sensation that is all Sanji. Last night they'd barely done more than this before Zoro had dropped Sanji off at his home. Being a gentleman and dating were all about as alien to Zoro as the topography of Mars, but he was learning. Not putting out on a first date, showing Sanji a good time. It chafes him though because seeing the cook as intent on him as this just does things to him.

“You're a fucking tease, you know that? I'm trying to concentrate at work and you keep running by my windows dressed, if you can call it that, like my own personal porn star. Do you have any idea how hard working has been with you doing that?” Sanji hisses at him, leaning in and biting Zoro's bottom lip hard. 

Zoro grins, it hadn't been his intention at all, not that Sanji would believe him if he told him that. However he can't say that he's opposed to the idea if it draws this kind of a reaction from the blonde. He shifts his nearly bare leg and moves it so that it's between Sanji's long black slack clad legs. He raises it slightly and, oh yeah, he can feel just how “hard” Sanji has been finding the whole ordeal.

“I can guess.” He teases back with a smug grin. 

Sanji snarls and, quick as a flash, catches Zoro's wrists and slams them into the door over his head. The blonde bares his teeth and presses against Zoro so hard that he could probably take his feet off of the floor and stay right where he was if he was so inclined to try. Despite his aggressive actions the cook's mouth on Zoro's neck is anything but aggressive. Gentle kisses mark Zoro's skin, chased by needy panted breaths. 

“You're so gorgeous you don't even... it's bad enough when you do that in the morning and I can sneak off to fix things but... with the dinner rush and you almost naked and practically doing laps around my windows...” Sanji whines and presses his hips into Zoro. 

Zoro leans his head back as far as his position allows to get a look at Sanji's face. The cook's cheeks are flushed high on his defined cheekbones and his eyes are wide with interest and lit with need. Sanji's got it bad. He sees a flicker of worry and doubt cross the blonde's face and the hands on Zoro's wrists loosen slightly, he's worried that he's overstepped. 

Zoro leans in quick and catches Sanji's mouth kissing him and leaning back to encourage Sanji to follow him until Zoro's head is pressed back against the wood of the door again. Out of curiosity he flexes his wrists a little and Sanji's grip tightens right back up again, keeping him there. 

He wonders if he could get out if he wanted to. Oh, sure, Sanji wouldn't ever keep him there if he didn't want to be there, he's just wondering on a strength competition level. He has a feeling that he has the blonde beat on an upper body strength level, but overall he's not sure. He saw the cook fight that guy outside the bar once and goddamn if that display of power hasn't featured in Zoro's personal fantasies for some time now. He's been this way for as long as he can remember, never really respecting any hook up of his if they couldn't at least come close to him in strength. 

Sanji is pinning him to the door, keeping him right where he wants him and not showing any inclination of letting him go. The cook seems... needy... desperate for him. Sanji is kissing him like he thinks he might die if he stops. His free hand is running over Zoro's bare and sweaty chest and the feeling of that alone is making Zoro whine. 

He can hear Daz's voice in his head, teasing Zoro about being secretly submissive. Daz had this theory that Zoro was just a sub in disguise and sooner or later he'd get him to admit it. Obviously with things having gone the way they did he could say for certain that it wasn't ever going to happen. Besides, Daz was wrong. It's not that he gets off on submission in the way that Daz used to get off on dominating people, it's more complex than that. Daz had to always be in charge whereas Zoro was far more flexible in that regard, he didn't mind leading or letting his partner lead or something in between, he didn't care about being the one giving or receiving either. He couldn't care less. What he got out of his interactions with Daz back then was liking the fact that Daz wanted him so bad that he felt the need to make sure that he got what he wanted by controlling the situation. In fairness to Daz that wasn't really what motivated him but Zoro had liked to think so. 

Sanji on the other hand... well, maybe Sanji has kinks in that direction that Zoro didn't know about. The feeling that he gets from this is that Sanji is desperate enough for him to get all controlling and possessive about it. 

Huh. Wait a minute. 

“What do you mean when I usually run?” He questions in between kisses. Sanji pulls back at that, his face bright red as if Zoro had heard something that he wasn't supposed to. 

“Shut up.” Sanji mutters and grabs a rough handful of Zoro's ass, squeezing hard, almost painfully so. 

“No way, what do you usually do when I run past your work?” He needles, needing to know. 

“Argh. Just... usually watching you run turns me on. I mean... have you seen you? Watching you get all hot and sweaty like that has always...” Sanji cuts himself off with a distracted shake of his head. 

Meanwhile Zoro's mind is spinning. Always? Does that mean that Sanji's been staring at him and lusting after him for ages whenever he goes for a run past the Baratie? Shiiiit that's hot.

“But when you're dressed like that... especially like that...” Sanji says, running a hand up Zoro's bare thigh, pushing his shorts up as high as they'll go on his bare leg. 

“Well, it's not a problem that goes away on it's own.” Sanji mutters and shoves him against the door a little more. The cook rubs his hard on against Zoro as if to emphasise his point. 

Zoro's head falls back and he can do fuck all to stop the desperate whine that comes from him. Sanji's been getting off to him running past the Baratie. That's just- he can't even...

“Oh, does that do it for you? Kinky narcissistic bastard aren't you?” Sanji purrs, his eyes flashing with glee. 

“Maybe.” Zoro hedges. Sanji snags his hand in the back of Zoro's hair and yanks him into a kiss that's bruisingly hard and desperate. Zoro whines and kisses back as urgently as he can. 

“Oh, so if I told you that I've spent the whole evening scatterbrained because you keep distracting me that wouldn't do anything to you?” Sanji questions, raising an eyebrow. Zoro has the best poker face, Sanji's getting nothing out of him. 

“The fact that I've spent all evening wanting to get my hands all over that chest of yours... wanting to keep you right where I want you rather than you teasing me by just running past... that wouldn't do aaaanything to you?” Sanji purrs. Fuck, his face might be neutral (he hopes) but the way his hips just bucked against Sanji and the way he's trembling says far more. 

“Yeah, I thought so.” Sanji grins, his free hand pressing against Zoro's more than hard state. Zoro squeezes his eyes shut and bites his lip. How the hell is Sanji figuring him out so quick? Is this what happens when you date people? Sanji knows him really deep down, he's his best friend, so... so if they start sleeping together does this give Sanji fucking superpowers for getting him off? Goddamn why did no one tell him that dating would be like this sooner?

See, if he was secretly submissive he'd be in heaven right now. But... well... aside from being flirted with like this he's got his own needs. It's not fair for Sanji to be able to rip him apart like this and see down into his core like that. Zoro wants a go. He wants to see the cook's self control crack just like his is. Sure, seeing Sanji needing him is hot as fuck but... well, even if Sanji is getting off on this he'd rather Sanji actually get off. 

He moves to reach for Sanji but as soon as his wrists move Sanji's grip is snapped right back on him, if anything the cook pushes his hands a little higher up the door, making Zoro's back arch to compensate. That's... yeah, ok, they can explore that later but right now he's not interested in Sanji restraining him. The cook seems to get that and lets him go with a smug grin. 

Goddamnit, is Sanji a mind reader? That would be troubling. He squints at Sanji.

'If you're a mind reader, blink twice at me.' Zoro thinks to himself, directing the thought at Sanji as loud as he can. 

“What kind of shitty expression is that? You look like you just had a seizure. Are you ok?” Sanji asks with a touch of worry in his voice. 

“Uh. Nothing.” Zoro tries chirpily. Yep. He wasn't thinking stupid things, no. 

“No, what?” Sanji asks, stepping away from Zoro. 

“I have an excellent idea, let's not have that conversation.” Zoro declares brightly. 

“Yeah like I'm gonna-” Sanji starts, his tone dismissive. However Zoro chooses that moment to drop to his knees right in front of Sanji, lean in and lick Sanji's black dress slacks right over the shape of his dick. The end of Sanji's sentence turns into a sound somewhere along the lines of 'HNG”. 

Oh wow... Sanji smells like pheromones and need and just... mmm. Yeah, he can work with this. He rubs his cheek on Sanji's hard on and delights in the way that Sanji's breath hitches. 

Keeping his eyes turned upwards to watch Sanji's expression he lets his hands trail up Sanji's thighs. He feels the muscles tense and shudder as he moves upwards and hears the harsh breath forced out between Sanji's gritted teeth. He flicks the button on Sanji's trousers open and lets his hands slide back down to Sanji's thighs. One second, two. Nope, Sanji's making no move to stop him, that's a green light if ever he saw one. That and the way that Sanji is staring down at him with wide, hopeful, shining eyes. His mouth is softly parted as he breathes heavier than usual.

He doesn't even try to suppress his smug grin as he leans in to Sanji and opens his mouth, teasingly slow. He leans in, his nose brushing the button that he just undid. His mouth floods with the taste of metal as his teeth close and, watching Sanji carefully, he unzips Sanji's fly with his teeth. 

The cook makes a high pitched noise somewhere between fear and delight and slams his hands into the wall. Zoro knows all too well why, he can feel Sanji's thighs shaking. 

He rubs soothing circles on Sanji's thighs as the fabric of Sanji's trousers shifts. He follows with his mouth. Smooth hipbones and unbelievably hot skin are all Zoro's for the taking. He kisses the skin as he explores it, slower than he'd like and about a million times slower than Sanji would like. The blonde is watching him like a hawk. A hawk that may as well be yelling at him to GET ON WITH IT. 

Nope, teasing him is waaaay too fun. Oh hey, Sanji has a trail of corse blonde hair from his bellybutton down into his boxers. A blonde happy trail, awesome. He kisses it and feels Sanji's stomach jump with the gasp he gives. He looks up and gets a good look up the inside of Sanji's shirt, with the blonde leaning over him like that it's impossible to see his face now. That won't do. 

Zoro stands up, dragging his hands up Sanji's sides as he does so. 

“Oh, no, please don't- eep!” Sanji squeaks, his pleading being derailed as Zoro picks the lighter man up off of the floor and spins him so that his back is pressed against the wall and then drops right back down onto his knees before the cook. He looks up and watches Sanji watching him. Muuuch better. 

He decides to have a little mercy and pulls Sanji's boxers down. The blonde's cock springs free from its confines, clearly as eager to see him as Zoro is to see it. Instead of just staring at it like he wants to he moves in and lets himself kiss down that line of coarse blonde hair. Sure he wants to get time to properly check out what Sanji's packing, but sitting there just gawping at another man's junk is just pain rude. 

Instead he sizes Sanji up by gently kissing along him as he gets there, one hand running along the other side of him. Hm, perhaps a little shorter than Zoro is but yeah... wider. Mmm. A nice change from Daz who was hung like a horse in a way that went beyond compliments and frankly started edging into the territory of terrifying. No, Sanji is a much nicer size. 

As much as Zoro enjoys giving head, and he does when it's someone he intends on seeing more than once, the soundtrack to this is way better. Sanji's making these little oh so quiet gasps and whines each time Zoro touches him or kisses him, like he can't quite believe that it's real. He looks up and sees Sanji watching him intently, his lip caught between his teeth. 

Zoro opens his mouth, watching Sanji's eyes go wide and breathes hot air onto Sanji. He feels Sanji's dick jump against his hand. Goddamn Sanji looks desperate right about now, and that is doing wonders for Zoro's own sex drive. He slowly puts his tongue out and watches as Sanji's teeth dig hard into his lip and he feels the cook hold his breath. This is awesome and absolutely the best idea that Zoro has ever had. 

He licks him, just once, from base to tip and revels in the stuttered gasp that Sanji makes. He wonders what other kind of noises that he can get out of the blonde. Well, there's one way to find out. 

Zoro has a lot of skills. He's a good rock climber, a pretty damn good runner, he can tie about a hundred kind of knots and make thirty six-year-olds shut up and do what the fuck he says. All impressive skills. This one however is his favourite. He lets Sanji slide past his lips, over his tongue and keeps going. He keeps going until his lips press right up against Sanji's blonde curls. Ta-dah, no gag reflex. It's the best thing. 

“HOLY SHITING SHIT- FUCK! DO YOU NOT- HOW CAN YOU- FFFF!” Sanji yells, his nails skittering against the wall and actually chipping paint off. 

Sanji's hand comes down so fast that Zoro barely sees it. Long dexterous fingers snarl in Zoro's hair and hold him statue fucking still, their grip actually kind of painful. 

“Oh fuck... don't you move or... oh shit... oh oh... just...” Sanji gasps out, his breath catching as he tries not to outright come. Zoro can feel Sanji's racing pulse against his tongue. Well, that's no fun. Sanji is actually holding him tight enough that he can't move unless he feels like losing a fistful of hair. 

Hm. 

He swallows. Slow. The muscles of his throat moving around Sanji. 

“FUCK!” Sanji shouts, his head snapping back and cracking against the wall. If Zoro's mouth wasn't full of cock he'd be grinning right now. Yeah, he'd be a terrible submissive. Obeying orders, what even is that? That's no fun. 

“You moved.” Sanji hisses tensely, his whole body shaking with effort. 

Technically not true. He makes a 'nuh-uh' noise in his throat seeing as he can't talk. Oh dear, does that make his throat vibrate? The throat and mouth that Sanji is currently occupying? Oh dear, how unintended. 

“Fuuuuck, fuck you you fucking fuck.” Sanji hisses out, letting go of Zoro's hair in favour of holding onto his own.

Zoro decides to have a little mercy on Sanji. Both because he's nice like that but also because it'd be lame if he had to stop doing this so soon. He pulls back on Sanji until the cook pops out of his mouth. 

“Ohhh, you are evil. You're amazing but... fuuuuck you are evil.” Sanji pants at him. 

“Hm, tell me more. I like hearing you.” Zoro purrs, his voice a little deeper from doing that. He rubs his thumb on the underside of Sanji's dick and lets the tip of his tongue map out the underside of Sanji's pretty cock. Mmm. 

“You... you are a kinky bastard and wow my imagination sucks compared to you.” The blonde gasps. 

“Oh?” Zoro asks innocently and takes Sanji back in his mouth again. Not all the way like he did before, something a little safer that isn't likely to make Sanji lose it right away. 

“Oh fuck your ego moss brain, oh god that's... oh. Shit, like you really need me to tell you I'd never thought of you doing this before. Or me doing this to you.” Sanji babbles, his hand petting Zoro's hair. 

“Hmm?” Zoro hums curiously, letting the noise run through Sanji.

Sanji seems to be getting the picture now. He keeps talking and Zoro keeps blowing him. The cook babbles on. 

“Ugh, like... like any time you sat at the booths in the Baratie I thought about just sliding under the table and undoing your fly and ohfuckhowareyousogoodatthis?” Sanji whines, his hips bucking against Zoro. He's lucky Zoro doesn't gag, most guys can't stand that and pin their partners down to stop just that kind of throat fuckery. Lucky for Sanji Zoro likes it. 

“I mean seriously you are my porn, and you basically write- oh... oh! Ah... write yourself in it. I mean you're a teacher for fuck's sake, you need me to enlighten you on all the 'oh teacher keep me after class' kind of thought there?” Sanji yammers. Zoro pulls back with a grimace at Sanji's words.

“Ugh, seriously? I teach teenagers man. You say I'm kinky?” Zoro says wrinkling his nose. It's not like he's unaware that there's teacher student porn out there but well, when it's his actual job that shit gets kinda gross to even think about. Besides, he teaches kids, no matter what people think of them or how close they are to being their twenties to when they were in their preteens that's just... no. 

“Nhg, I blame porn. But fucking seriously if I'd been sixteen and you were my teacher I'd have been in jerk off heaven, I might actually have shown up to school more.” Sanji teases a little breathlessly. 

“Suppose I should be thankful I'm not a nurse.” Zoro says, rolls his eyes and swallows Sanji back down. 

“Fff- don't give me ideas man.” the cook hisses and Zoro has to suppress a laugh at that. 

This is... nice. Okay, nice is a weak word. But this is all the fun of getting laid plus all of the fun of hanging out with his best friend. Shit, he can get behind this dating thing. Heh, get behind it. In the meantime though Zoro feels the need to ensure that he's the object of Sanji's jerk off fantasies to, well, perhaps the end of time. 

He's been deliberately keeping Sanji right near the edge, pushing him and backing him off over and over just to wind him up. He likes hearing the cook run his mouth, hearing the noises he makes and feeling his whole body jerk and tremble. It's time to push him past that though. 

He swallows Sanji all of the way down again and uses all he has. He uses his throat, he lets his tongue roam over him, he hums happily around Sanji, anything he can do to fucking wreck him. From the rising crescendo of sounds that the blonde is making he can tell that he's getting him right where he wants him. 

The cook has his head tipped back against the wall though, his eyes screwed shut and his mouth open warbling some desperate slur of 'ohgodyespleasemoreohthat'sityeah'. He's pretty sure that there's nothing stopping anything in Sanji's head from coming right out of his mouth. Zoro's pretty ok with that but he needs Sanji looking at him for this. 

He reaches up and grabs the cook's black tie, thank goodness for the blonde's prissy dressing habits and jerks hard on it to make Sanji look down. 

He can feel Sanji's muscles starting to tense, going from the slack bliss to the tight coil of almost there. Sanji's thighs especially are like corded steel under Zoro's hand. Sanji is looking at him glassy eyed and barely there. All set. He lets Sanji slide back out of his mouth, this time keeping a firm hand on the cook's hip to stop him from jerking forward to be back where he wants to be. 

The other hand releases Sanji's tie and joins his mouth on Sanji's cock. He leaves his mouth open but runs his tongue along the underside of Sanji, letting it rest just under the head as his hand continues moving on him. 

He gets to see a second of Sanji clocking just what he's doing and perhaps it's that idea that pushes him over the edge. Either way he feels the heat on his tongue of Sanji coming, feels it paint his tongue and knows that he's made Sanji watch him come in his mouth. From the shocked, ecstatic, turned on look on Sanji's face he's pretty sure that he's accomplished his aim of overwriting all of Sanji's other mental porn. 

He swallows, slow and obvious before putting his tongue out again and running it over the head of the cook's cock, chasing any come that he missed. Keeping perfect eye contact with the cook the whole time. Sanji whines and his legs give out, sliding shakily down the wall. 

“That's it, my... my imagination is fired. I'm hiring you to take over. That... fuuuck.” Sanji groans, still trembling with aftershocks, his trousers open and his legs splayed across Zoro's as he sprawls boneless at the bottom of the wall. Zoro is so fucking smug. It's probably illegal to be this pleased with himself, however he couldn't care less about that. He has obliterated Sanji. 

The two of them lay sprawled out on Sanij's floor, barely any way into Sanji's apartment. In fact Zoro had pretty much blown him right against the wall just next to Sanji's front door. 

“How did you even... how can you BE that good?” Sanji asks to the ceiling. Zoro is sprawled on his side watching Sanji as he gets his breath back to something approaching normal levels. 

“It's a gift.” He grins. 

“I think I might believe in god now then.” The blonde groans, sitting up and staring at Zoro. 

“How are you this amazing?” Sanji asks him with wide eyes.

“It's not that impressive.” Zoro frowns, feeling a little weird. Sure he likes compliments but still...

“Not just that, but you know, that too. Wow.” Sanji grins dumbly. He shakes his head and leans over, shoving Zoro flat on his back on Sanji's polished hardwood floor. He runs his hands along Zoro's bare skin and smiles, it's a soft sweet kind of expression that does more to make Zoro's heart race than any of that. 

“You just came into my life and blew out everything. Sometimes I wonder if I just dreamed you up you know? A guy like you... but, I know you're real.” the blonde sighs and leans down, pressing a kiss to Zoro's throat.

“Why wouldn't I be real?” he asks, lost to Sanji's meaning.

“I mean that I know you're real because, like I said, my imagination isn't good enough. Say that some kind of magic genie or some shit like that had come to me last year and said they'd make a guy just for me and that all I had to do was name things that I wanted...” Sanji starts to explain, sliding his hands down Zoro's chest. 

“I'd probably have asked for someone who made me laugh, someone who cares as much about what he does as I do about my work, and because I guess I'm a little shallow then someone who looks as good as you do sometimes.” Sanji says wistfully, leaning up on his elbows to look down at Zoro. 

“What'dya mean 'sometimes'?” Zoro frowns, sensing an insult in there.

“Eh, sometimes you show up looking like a hobo. But most of the time you're good, and sometimes you run around nearly naked, so there's that.” the blonde laughs, sitting up on Zoro's hips. His fly is still undone and Zoro can still see that trail of blonde hair leading down to where he's just been. 

“But I still couldn't have dreamed you up. You're all... complex.” the blonde hums, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. 

“You act like you're all tough and you look all scary, but you're the sweetest guy and you're a total nerd too. You have the most unusual taste in movies and you can make talking about even the tiniest things interesting. I swear, we've spent half an hour arguing about the risks of you giving me kid-germs from work and I liked it.” Sanji says with a smile. 

Zoro's heart does this clench flutter move and his throat goes all tight for a second as if he might cry. Sanji's not telling him that he loves him, but he might as well be. The thing is that Zoro feels exactly the same. He doesn't just want to have sex with Sanji or blow him, though he very much wants to do those things, he wants everything. He wants inside Sanji's life and his heart and it's as exciting as it is terrifying. 

He grabs Sanji in close and kisses him hard, feeling needy and dumb for doing it but not caring enough to stop himself. 

“I want this so bad.” He breathes against Sanji's skin as he holds the blonde close, and he does, he really really does. 

The kids in his class were right, this is exactly what they write stories and songs about, this is what everyone chases and what Sanji's wanted so bad from everyone. It baffles him how anyone could not want the blonde but it's fine because Sanji is his now and he's Sanji's. 

“Me too. I wanna hear what you sound like.” Sanji purrs and suddenly his hands are sliding into Zoro's running shorts and oh, hello. 

“So, about that kink of yours. You getting off on knowing just how much I want you, right?” Sanji purrs at him, his fingers curling around Zoro. Zoro bites into his bottom lip and says nothing.

“Oh... silent treatment huh? We have ways of making you talk.” Sanji says in his best evil villain voice and leans down to bite quickly at Zoro's ribs before sitting up and putting on his best thoughtful face. 

“Hmm, I could tell you that one of the reasons that I showered first that night that you slept in my bed was because staying in bed with you would drive me mad when I couldn't be with you. Or that I spent the whole time that I was in there wishing you were in there with me.” Sanji says thoughtfully, as if it's just casual conversation. Zoro has absolutely no ability to stop the stuttering and broken sound that comes out from his throat. He'd been right about Sanji that night, he knew it. 

“Sanjiii...” Zoro whines, his running shoes squeaking on Sanji's hardwood floor as his feet scrabble as his body starts to get bowstring taut. It should dislodge Sanji from where he's sitting on Zoro's thighs but it doesn't, the cook has good balance. 

“You know that this is pretty much gonna be on my mind now whenever I see you run, right?” Sanji continues. His tone would be almost conversational if it wasn't deeply resonant with lust. It doesn't help that the way that Sanji is sitting and stroking Zoro so close to himself makes it almost look like Zoro's watching Sanji get himself off instead. 

“M-maybe I'll do it more then.” Zoro says, his breath stuttering his words as Sanji undoes him.

“Oh yeah, that'll teach me.” Sanji laughs deeply and adds a little twist to his wrist that makes Zoro whine. 

The blonde is looking down at him through thoroughly messed up hair, his clothes are a wreck and his expression is something powerful and possessive. Goddamnit, a man that has just been blown that well should not be able to wear a smile that smug. 

“I- ah- maybe I... oh...” Zoro realises that he is beyond proper sentences and verbal sparring now. 

He's pinned under Sanji from where the blonde is sitting on him and the last thing that Zoro wants is to make the blonde move off of him. He shouldn't be getting this worked up this fast but he's so into Sanji and having pulled him apart got Zoro halfway there without Sanji having to even touch him. Sanji is his best friend and now... now he's his boyfriend. He'd been tempted by Sanji for so long but his own dumb rules had kept them apart. Sanji was right, love was the way to go. Knowing all of that somehow makes everything even more intense.

He needs to breathe but he can't stop the sounds and pleas that tumble from him. He tilts his head back, grinding the crown of his head into the floor as he tries to straighten his throat out to breathe harder. He shudders and squirms under Sanji, he doesn't want to get away from Sanji or to stop him, not at all, but he just can't stay still. He digs his fingers into Sanji's thighs to try to... to do anything, to ground himself, to keep Sanji where he is. 

“You're perfect like this, you know that?” Sanji whispers to him as his hand speeds up. There's this expression in Sanji's eyes that just tips Zoro over the edge with a noise that is probably far too loud for the comfort of Sanji's neighbours. 

He comes back into full awareness with Sanji kissing him breathlessly, the two of them are pressed together and Zoro is absolutely ensuring that everything that Sanji is currently wearing needs to be washed very very soon. The two of them stay sprawled on the floor and as Zoro rubs his nose into Sanji's pulse point and kisses him there he thinks that the blonde has the right idea about falling in love after all.


	16. Chapter 16

"Happy Birthday Nami!" Sanji calls as he walks through the bar where Nami's birthday is being held. The redhead lights up with a big smile and pulls him into a hug which Sanji only swoons a little bit over.

"It's so good of you to come along Sanji, I'm so pleased to see you." Nami smiles happily.

"It'd be a crime to miss out on your birthday my dearest." Sanji flutters and hands over her gift.

"Oooh, oh Sanji, home made chocolates? You shouldn't have." Nami purrs, peeking in the box, her tone of voice absolutely saying that he should have and she'd really like if he did so again in fact. Sanji beams in glee at his gift being so well received. The redhead looks around and frowns a little.

"Is Zoro not with you?" She asks, searching for Sanji's... boyfriend... maybe? Whatever he is. Searching for Zoro.

"Uh, no. I just came from work, we hadn't planned to come here together or anything. Why, did he say that we were?" Sanji asks in confusion. He's pretty sure that Zoro hadn't said anything about hitching a lift or about waiting for each other to go there. Zoro had just bitched about having to choose between getting Nami pricey booze and getting her lots of booze.

"No, just- ugh, he's never been here before so he's probably lost." Nami groans and flicks her hair over her shoulder in agitation.

"Do... do you want me to track him down and bring him here?" Sanji offers uncertainly.

"No way! Zoro's lack of navigational skills is his own problem, not yours. Besides, the pull of booze will bring him here soon enough. It's not like you're attached at the hip or anything, go enjoy yourself." Nami orders him, shooing him off towards the bar before she squeals in joy and throws herself at the incoming Robin.

Sanji orders himself a drink and leans against the bar uneasily. Whilst he's friendly with Zoro's friends and he's starting to become part of the same group he's not quite there yet and it feels little like he's just hanging out with Zoro's friends without the man there. He wanders through the tables, drink in hand as he looks for someone that he knows reasonably well to talk to without monopolizing the attentions of the birthday girl, no matter how lovely she is.

His choice is made for him however when a hand on his elbow stops him. Sanji turns to look at the guy who's leaning against a high bar table and grinning at Sanji broadly. He recognizes him, he's sure of it and it's the grin that tips him off. He looks like Luffy.

"You're... Ace, right? Luffy's brother." Sanji says, though the more he looks at the guy the more certain he is.

"That's me." Ace laughs brightly.

"Sorry, I'm not so great with names." Sanji apologizes quickly, feeling a little ashamed of even having to ask.

"Hey, you got it right didn't you?" Ace points out.

Sanji shrugs and his brain desperately rifles through his mental notes of what he knows about the guy. He... can't remember his job but equally he can't remember if he's ever been told it by Zoro and... oh yeah, there's the other thing that he knows about Ace. He and Zoro used to sleep together. He knows that they haven't for some time and he's pretty sure that Ace ended it but Sanji finds himself a little jealous all the same. Whilst he and Zoro had that incredible evening a few days back they still haven't slept together. A fact that hadn't bothered him until he was standing right in front of a man who repeatedly has.

"I see you're not with Zoro." Ace says, leaning on his fist and looking at Sanji. The blonde bristles inside but he keeps his cool, he doesn't know exactly what Ace means by that and he's not going to give anyone reasons to ask questions about him and Zoro, especially when he's not 100% certain about what's going on with the two of them in his own mind.

"Yeah, he's probably lost. You know Zoro." Sanji says lightly.

"He's hopeless." Ace says with a shake of his head, making the tie of his hat shake with the movement. Who the hell wears a hat inside anyway? It's just rude. To top it off the guy's not even wearing a shirt, how was he allowed into the bar? What an asshole.

"Hey, I know that we don't know each other much or... at all really... but I hear a lot about you from Luffy." Ace says quickly.

"Ok?" Sanji frowns, not getting where Ace is going with this and frankly not wanting to get to know the man any better. Sanji really hopes that Zoro saw more in this guy than just his abs and tattoos. Though actually, no, he hopes that Zoro didn't see anything in him but that. Their relationship was just physical, however much it pains Sanji to think of it like that. He doesn't want them to have any interests in common, not even amazing abs.

"Ok, I know that you two are close I just wanted to give you some advice quickly about Zoro." Ace says quickly, glancing around as if someone might overhear them.

"Like what?" Sanji asks flatly, not liking where this is going. Do people know about the two of them? If so he hopes that one of them will explain it to him so that he can know what's going on.

"Just don't get involved with him, okay? I mean, stay friends with him but that's it." Ace insists.

"What the hell? None of that is any of your fucking business!" Sanji yells angrily.

"Shh! Shh! Not so loud!" Ace hisses at him.

"I'm just saying that... that's Zoro a great guy and I know you like him, you're great friends and it's just... it's easy to fall for him, you know? I'm warning you not to do that though, it's not worth it." Ace says lowly.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Sanji spits. Ace doesn't know what Zoro can be like and he sure as shit has no grounds for presuming Sanji's sexuality or interest of any kind in Zoro.

"I know that falling for Zoro is an easy thing to do, I know what I'm talking about there. Just... learn from my mistake and just don't do it. That's all I wanted to say." Ace says in a quiet voice.

Sanji just stares at Ace in shock. He thought... he swears that Zoro told him that Ace broke it off because he got into an actual relationship with another guy. Is that just what Zoro thinks though? Had Ace been in love with him and Zoro didn't know it? Or maybe Zoro did but just hadn't wanted to tell Sanji that, but why would he lie? They'd discussed Ace long before whatever this is started between the two of them. What does this even mean?

"Hey Marco!" Ace calls loudly as another man that Sanji remembers seeing around comes up to their table.

"Hey, what's up? Oh and... Sanji, right? You're Zoro's friend. I think we've kind of met but not really met. I'm Marco." the blonde with the odd undercut says with a warm smile and offers a hand for Sanji to shake.

"Yeah, I think you came to the Baratie that night. Thank you for that by the way." Sanji says earnestly. Ace might be rude and out of line but his buddy doesn't seem to be so bad.

"So, what were we talking about? Here's your beer, they didn't have the single filtered so it's double just so you know." Marco says, that last bit directed at Ace who's face lights up.

"Woo, stronger alcohol. And we ah... we weren't really talking about anything." Ace lies and takes a sip of his beer. Sanji's eyes narrow, so Ace was in love with Zoro then and his boyfriend doesn't know it. Shit, he was probably in love with both of them at the same time, maybe he just settled for this Marco guy. What a fucking asshole!

"Ace was just telling me not to get involved with Zoro." Sanji answers bluntly. Ace spits his beer out in shock and Marco looks at him with a flat and unimpressed expression.

"Really." Marco says flatly and Ace ducks his head in embarrassment.

"I was just trying to help the guy out." Ace responds a little meekly.

"How, exactly? Anyway, I thought the two of them were already really involved. Zoro wouldn't have scrambled everyone like that if they weren't and Luffy's always talking about the two of them in the same breath." Marco points out.

"Yeah, they're best friends but I meant more... physically." Ace hedges uncomfortably, clearly he hadn't wanted to have this conversation with Marco around.

"That's not really any of your business Ace." Marco remarks, his hands on his hips and his sleepy face pulling into an expression of displeasure.

"Thank you." Sanji interjects and considers just walking away.

"Look, I'm not just bringing this out of nowhere, the general consensus is that something else is going on with the two of you. I'm just trying to help is all." Ace insists to Sanji.

"He's telling me not to fall in love with the guy." Sanji says to Ace out of spite, like hell he's going to cover for Ace's shit behavior to his boyfriend. He's not going to be complicit in his lies.

Marco looks at the two of them with surprise written all over his face and then his mouth pulls into a flat line as he looks Sanji up and down.

"That at least might actually be good advice. Zoro doesn't do love." Marco says, leaning his elbows on the table and taking a long pull of his beer. Sanji scowls, and to think he'd been starting to like this guy better than Ace. These jerks deserve each other for talking behind Zoro's back like this.

"Yeah, I know his policy. What happened to this not being any of your business?" Sanji says through gritted teeth.

"Nah, it's not. It's just... a theory I have. He's like Luffy I think." Marco says, looking across the room at the boy in question who currently has chopsticks up his nose and pulling down his lower lip. Where did he even get chopsticks in a bar anyway?

"This again? Look, there's no proof that Luffy is like that." Ace says with a put upon sigh and a slight glare at Marco as if this is a debate that they'd had many times before. Marco shakes his head and smiles.

"Look, Luffy's never shown any interest in sex at all. Not with anyone. He's never dated and I've never seen him eye up anyone and Ace hasn't either. He's asexual, I'm sure of it." Marco says with a knowing smile and another look at Luffy who is now dancing on a table with chopsticks up his nose, that can only end badly, Sanji is sure of it.

"So?" Sanji prompts.

"Yeah, if anyone is the opposite of Luffy it's Zoro. The number of people that guy has slept with I swear-" Ace argues but is silenced by Sanji's death glare, it's about the first sensible thing that Ace has done all evening. Like fuck is Sanji going to stand for these two shit heads effectively calling Zoro a slut. No way in hell.

"Not with sex, with romance. You can be aromantic." Marco explains.

"Okay, now you're just making up words." Ace laughs loudly and Sanji wants to kick him in the face.

"No, I'm not. Look, he's never shown any interest in it, he doesn't get why people do it, he's said a thousand times that he'll never fall in love and it's not for him. Even if he changed his mind about wanting to I don't think he's capable of it." Marco says smoothly with words that freeze the marrow in Sanji's bones. Marco isn't talking shit about Zoro, he's not said anything there that isn't true or that Sanji hasn't thought himself.

The fact that Zoro might decide that he wants to do romance it doesn't mean that he can or that it'll work for him. Shit, everything fits so well. Zoro probably doesn't even know what romance feels like. Sure he feels love for his friends, Sanji knows that. Zoro is his best friend and Zoro loves him, he knows that. Zoro has come to his house at ungodly hours just because Sanji needed him, he saved the Baratie for him, he knows almost every little thing about Sanji and he knows when to fight and when to just let him vent his spleen to get his bad mood out. That's love, but it's a love of friends.

He knows that Zoro is sexually attracted to him. Does he ever know that. There's no faking the way that Zoro wrecked him the other night, the way that Zoro looked at him with such heat in his eyes. Zoro wanted that, Zoro wants him.

Zoro wants him and he loves him as a friend, all of that Sanji knows down to his bones now. But if Zoro can't feel romantic love then it's possible that he's just faking it for Sanji. It's probably not even deliberate, if Zoro has never loved any of his partners like he does with Sanji then maybe he thinks that he is in love when he's not. It's like trying to explain the difference between red and green to someone who is colourblind.

"Yeah, see this is what I mean Sanji." Ace says softly and Sanji snaps out of his thoughts to realize that he'd been standing there in wide eyed shock for too long.

"Fuck both of you." Sanji hisses and stalks off.

Sanji leans against the bar in the furthest corner of it away from Marco and Ace and grips his wine glass harder than is strictly advisable. He downs it and flags the barman down for another drink, this time he's skipping straight to quality vodka. He holds a finger up, gulps the whole glass back and gestures for another, paying for both at the same time.

He glares down at the clear alcohol and the ice in his glass. His own subconscious had warned him about this, about how Zoro was incapable of love and how he'd try to fake it for him. He's already in love with Zoro, far too far in love to back out of it from common sense. Zoro is going to break his heart, he can see it. He can't deal with that happening to him again, he simply cannot. He's had to put his own heart back together so many times that he's not sure that all of the pieces fit right together any more. If he lets Zoro break his heart then he may never be whole again, he cannot risk that.

A finger jabs him hard in the side, making Sanji yelp and spin around angrily only to see Zoro laughing at him.

"Oh god, you sounded like a kicked chihuahua! Do it again!" Zoro cackles and jabs Sanji again.

"Quit it." Sanji snaps and bats the other man's hand away.

"You're no fun. Hey, whiskey please." Zoro says, turning his attention to the barman halfway through. The barman nods and goes off to make Zoro's drink.

Sanji looks at him for a moment. His gorgeous best friend with skin like bronze, sharp features and bright eyes. Zoro turns back to him with a smile as bright as a small sun. Despite himself Sanji's insides heat up and he finds himself relaxing. Even if Zoro doesn't love him like that he can't deny that they have something deep and meaningful. Zoro has his hands deep into Sanji's chest and he can untangle the mess in Sanji's head and his heart without even trying.

"You okay? You look a little pale, well, more than usual." Zoro asks teasingly.

"I- Nami was looking for you. You should probably find her." Sanji says instead, glancing off across the room to find the long waterfall of red hair that indicates Nami's presence.

"Yeah, good point. Come on." Zoro agrees and takes his drink from the barman and gives him a note with the same hand in one smooth movement.

Zoro leads the way through the crowd and Sanji follows as if bound to Zoro by an invisible rope.

"Nami!" Zoro calls and when Nami turns to look at him he scoops her up into a hug that lifts her off the floor, making her shriek and bat her fists against his shoulder to put her down, she's laughing though and her face is glowing too so Sanji knows that she's happy to see him.

"Present." Zoro says with a grin, holding up a shopping bag.

"Your gift wrapping could use work." Nami huffs, taking the bag from him and putting it on the table nearest her. She opens it and gasps in delight, pulling a bottle out. Sanji peers in to see five others just like it.

"It's that citrus spiced wine, where did you even find this? Oh ZORO! Thank you!" Nami exclaims in joy, throwing her arms around Zoro's neck. Sanji looks at the label on one of the bottles at his eyes widen in shock, the wine is 11% alcohol, this is some strong shit!

"Glad you like it. Now get offa me, your perfume is gross." Zoro grouses as Nami lets go of him. He knows that Zoro isn't serious, nor is Nami when she kicks him in the shin, they're just playing. The two of them don't get on a lot of the time, they rub each other up the wrong way too often, but when they do get on it's an amazing thing to see.

"You're gross you caveman." Nami retorts, slapping him on the arm and sticking out her tongue.

"ZORO!"

That's about all of the warning Zoro gets before he's practically clotheslined by a hug from Luffy. Sanji steps back just enough that he's not caught in the flail of limbs from the overexcited guy and Zoro's flailing. Luffy babbles happily to Zoro, asking him why he took so long getting there, if they're gonna play pool whilst Zoro is here and did Zoro bring him a present too. Zoro meanwhile is answering the questions as fast as they come whilst also trying to pull the apparently very stretchy and flexible Luffy off of him but having no luck. When Luffy wants to hug you there will be hugs whether you like it or not apparently.

Sanji stands off to the side with Nami who is watching the pair with an expression that seems both exasperated and fond. Her eyes catch his after a moment and she grins at him.

"He's known Zoro the longest out of any of us but every time he sees him you'd think that Zoro's been away for years without contacting him." Nami sighs and rolls her eyes.

"How long have they known each other?" Sanji asks curiously as Luffy clambers up onto Zoro's shoulders. Sanji isn't sure which is more impressive, that Luffy is able to squirm around in Zoro's grip enough to do that or that Zoro's managed to not spill a drop of his drink throughout the whole tussle.

"Since Luffy was fifteen, they met in school. Luffy just decided that Zoro was going to be his friend and that was that. You've not got any hope of getting away either now, just so you know. Luffy's decided that he likes you so I'm afraid that you're stuck with us." Nami says with a devious grin on her face.

Sanji watches the two of them for a long moment in silence as Marco's words continue to ring through his head. He chews his lip in indecision.

"You've known Luffy a long time too though, right?" Sanji questions her without taking his eyes off of the pair of them.

"Usopp's known them longer but, yes. It did take Zoro and I quite a while to be friends. It usually takes a really long time before Zoro decides if he likes you or not, though I think he took the longest with me. You on the other hand..." Nami says with a sly smirk as she looks up at Sanji.

The blonde reddens. He's often been told that Zoro took to him faster than anyone on record and he's seen enough knowing eyebrows arched at him from their group to know that they think something more is going on there. Sanji no longer knows what he thinks about that.

"So in all the time you've known Luffy... has... has he ever dated anyone or slept with anyone?" he asks carefully. It doesn't seem to be carefully enough though because Nami's whole body turns to him and she scrutinies his face like a detective in a cop movie who's trying to press someone into confessing.

"Why? Are you interested in him?" She asks flatly, her arms folded under her ample chest.

"What?! No! No. I was just curious, it was something I'd heard is all. It seems a little odd, you know? Luffy's a little... over enthusiastic and playful." Sanji concedes as Luffy blows a raspberry on Zoro's neck. Usopp has run over to join the fun and is now trying to tickle Zoro's side with some success.

"But he's a good guy and he's not unattractive. It seems a little odd for him not to have... you know." Sanji finishes lamely. Nami seems to get the gist of Sanji's question though.

"Well, he's had himself a few admirers, that's for sure. Oh, there was this one woman who was completely- uh, never mind." Nami says, shaking her head with a grimace that suggests that the whole thing is a little gross for her to think about.

"But no, he's never really been interested as far as I know. But it's none of my business." the red head says and Sanji gets the point that it's none of his either.

"Oh, absolutely. Whatever he does or doesn't do in his bedroom is his look out. It's just nice that he's happy, that's the main thing." Sanji agrees, trying to smooth Nami's feathers at his ham-handed questions. Nami seems to relax again and she looks at the three guys and laughs behind her hand.

Sanji watches as Zoro finally wrangles Luffy into a headlock and starts scruffing up his hair. He can't help but smile at the sight.

It's not that he avoids Zoro for the evening, that'd be a shitty thing to do, but he's got a lot of thinking to do and observing Zoro interacting with people is actually helping. He finds himself going back and forth on his opinion of Zoro's feelings for him, but more importantly he keeps alternating how he feels about each option. If he presses Zoro to find out his intentions and stop all of this vague bullshit then it could very well hurt both of them and the last thing that he wants to do is to hurt Zoro.

Sanji orders a few more drinks, he doesn't want to get drunk but he sure as hell doesn't want to be sober right now either. He finds a nice middle somewhere in between.

Feeling a fair amount less sober he wanders over to Zoro playing Usopp at pool and thoroughly losing. He comes up behind Zoro and wraps his arms sloppily around Zoro's waist and rests his chin on Zoro's shoulder to survey the table. Usopp does some kind of impossible trick shot that makes Zoro groan in despair and Sanji just stare in shock.

"Remind me never to play against him." Sanji says to Zoro who laughs.

"I just like seeing him do it. You know that Nami takes Usopp around to bars sometimes and convinces people to bet against him whilst she bets in favor, right?" Zoro smiles at him. Sanji melts inside, he can make himself forget all of his Zoro uncertainty, at least for a while. In the meantime he can just enjoy the way that Zoro radiates calm and makes Sanji happy deep down into his core.

"We clean up, not that she gives me a fair take of it mind you." Usopp comments before standing up and gesturing to Zoro for his turn.

Sanji lets Zoro go so that he can make his shot. Besides he's probably not helping to keep whatever it is between them secret if he's draping himself all over Zoro like a stupid cape is he?

He watches Zoro's strong fingers press into the table, setting up a steady point for his pool cue. The man is actually reasonably decent at the game, if he was playing against someone less freakishly skilled then he might win. Zoro seems to be having a good time but despite the decent buzz that Sanji has got going he still can't relax. Everything that Ace and Marco said to him are sticking his mind like a splinter, aggravating him constantly. There's that uncomfortable voice in the back of his head reminding him that everyone else has left him and that if he and Zoro are dating then there's no reason for Zoro to be any exception.

"Aw shit." Zoro laughs, folding his hands on the top of his pool cue and watching at Usopp sinks the last ball with a cocky grin.

"I'm gonna go see if I can convince Franky to play." Usopp declares, puts his cue on the table and walks away.

"Oh boy, I just hope he doesn't bet money." Zoro remarks.

"I hope he does, I could use my drinks bought for me for the night!" Usopp calls over his shoulder with a laugh.

"Wow, he's been hanging out with Nami way too much." Zoro chuckles and leans back on the pool table, his butt against the edge of it, side by side with Sanji.

Zoro pokes him in the side with his elbow and raises a dramatic eyebrow at him.

"What?" Sanji asks defensively.

"Come on Sanji, you've been brooding all night. What's got under your skin?" Zoro presses him. Sanji tries to contain the wince. He is Zoro's best friend, he loves that, but is he just Zoro's best friend or is he his boyfriend or what?

"I've just... got a lot on my mind." Sanji hedges and stares at the faded and worn carpet. He doesn't want to tell Zoro what he's thinking, he doesn't want to hurt him. But is not talking to Zoro about it going to hurt him worse? He's so confused.

"Well, I want to know but you've got that stubborn ass face that says that you don't wanna talk about it." Zoro concludes, pushing away from the table and turning to face Sanji.

"Thank you." he says softly and leans in to rest his head against Zoro's chest. He just wants to stick his head in the sand and pretend that this isn't happening and that everything is okay.

"Eh, whatever." Zoro shrugs easily.

"Okay, well, Nami and I have to have our bi-yearly drinking contest so you may well have to drag me home later. Bitch is the only person who can out drink me and I'm not going to let her win twice in a row, it's bad enough that she got me on my birthday." Zoro says with a scowl across the room. Sanji pulls back and sees Nami grinning her cheshire cat smile at the pair of them. She holds up a shot glass and wiggles it enticingly.

With a muttered 'it's on' Zoro stalks off and Sanji stays where he is, eventually playing spectator to Usopp and Franky's match whilst watching Zoro and Nami get progressively drunker as the pile of empty glasses gets higher and higher. In either case Sanji isn't really present in the moment, his head too consumed with the fog of worry to enjoy himself.

He's snapped back into reality after dazing off and watching Franky and Usopp's pool game when there's a sudden crash and a bout of cheering. Sanji walks over to the bronze bar that runs around the slightly raised level where the pool tables and booths are to see Nami standing on her chair with her arms raised in the air and cheering and Zoro sprawled on the floor.

"Oh god." Sanji groans and heads down to deal with the problem.

"You bish, you, you... fukkin... whyyyy?" Zoro slurs unhappily from the floor.

"You are trashed." Sanji remarks, looking down at Zoro.

"She won!" Zoro wails, flailing his arms and catching Sanji's hand.

"Yes, I can see that she literally drank you under the table. Up you get." He sighs and hauls Zoro upright. Zoro laughs at nothing in particular and presses his face into Sanji's thigh and honest to god giggles.

"Winner winner chicken dinner, yer paying for Sanji to cook me anything I like!" Nami crows, jumping off of her chair and landing unsteadily on the floor.

"I look forward to it, but for now I think I'd better get him home to bed." he grunts, lifting Zoro to his feet.

"Yeah, I bet you will." Nami says with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows that makes Sanji redden to the tips of his ears, it doesn't help that his blush only makes her laugh more. Zoro clinging to every part of Sanji that he can in an effort to remain standing doesn't help Sanji's case either.

"Let's go. Uh, happy birthday Nami!" Sanji calls as he walks the stumbling man out of the bar.

Being out in the dark and relatively cold air sobers Zoro up fractionally, but not much. Zoro has his arm wrapped around Sanji's waist and his head on Sanji's shoulder whilst the cook clutches Zoro close to himself to steady him. Zoro is rambling on about what Nami had him drink and how she beat him and that Zoro is definitely going to beat her on his birthday as if Sanji cares at all about the dumb drinking contest.

Sanji's only seen Zoro drunk once before and that is not a happy memory. This time at least Zoro is happy and he's not as trashed as he was that one night after the whole ordeal with Daz. He guides Zoro to his building and up the stairs to his own front door. Zoro slumps against the wall and grins at Sanji as the blonde uses his key to open Zoro's door.

"You're pretty." Zoro says suddenly, making Sanji jump and miss the lock on the door. He looks over at Zoro wide eyed in surprise and feels his face heat up.

"You're drunk." Sanji replies and shoves the door open.

"Both are true." Zoro agrees as Sanji walks in with Zoro following him.

Sanji wanders over to Zoro's kitchen and takes a pint glass from his cupboard and fills it with water. He leaves it on the side and goes into Zoro's medicine cabinet and returns with aspirin.

"What're you doin?" Zoro asks, tilting his head at Sanji and nearly losing his balance in the process.

"Doing you a favor and ensuring that you won't be so hung over tomorrow. Drink this and take these." He orders, handing both to Zoro.

Zoro sighs petulantly but does as he's told. They've been friends long enough that Zoro knows the fights that he won't win. When Zoro has downed the glass Sanji gets closer and looks at Zoro, he doesn't seem to have hurt himself when he fell off of his chair and lost his bet but it's good to be sure.

Zoro however seems to misinterpret Sanji's actions and leans in and kisses him. The action makes Sanji gasp and Zoro presses forward with surprising coordination for a drunk man. Strong and hot hands touch Sanji's sides and the blonde feels at peace. It's amazing how happy he can be when his self doubt gets silenced. Before he and Zoro started this thing he was worried that his feelings would screw up their relationship and now he's worrying about whether Zoro really loves him or not.

His eyes drift shut and he wraps his arms around Zoro's neck, one hand creeping down between his shoulder blades and idly brushing the soft shirt that Zoro's wearing. Zoro pulls back a little and kisses Sanji's cheekbone before burying himself in Sanji's hair with a happy hum that Sanji feels in his chest. Sanji squeezes his eyes shut even tighter and tries to absorb the warmth and Zoro-ness from the other man, to drink it in entirely. He wants this so badly and he really doesn't want to lose it because this moment is perfect.

"Hey... fuck me?" Zoro asks hopefully, his breath misting across Sanji's cheek and into his ear. The blonde jolts in shock, way to ruin the perfect sweetly affectionate moment. He pulls back and stares at Zoro.

"I'd offer to fuck you if you preferred but I think my coord-cordinashion co...whatever is a little shot." Zoro grins sloppily at him.

"No doubt." Sanji agrees flatly.

"So... please?" Zoro asks hopefully, his thumbs rubbing Sanji's hipbones and making him shiver out of instinct.

"Zoro, you're drunk." Sanji says simply. He should feel less conflicted by this but Zoro is looking at him so intently, like he needs this so badly. Sanji's heart clenches hard inside his chest as the thought occurs that Zoro needs him that badly, that he wants Sanji to sleep with him that much.

"Yeah." Zoro shrugs and presses a messy kiss to Sanji's cheek and tugs at Sanji's black jeans. Sanji squeezes his eyes shut and reminds himself to breathe. Zoro is too drunk for this. He's pretty sure that Zoro really does want him but it's pretty skeevy to be more or less sober himself and sleep with Zoro when Zoro is so far gone. Zoro could be asking for it and not really mean it and... that's not how he wants this to go down.

His body has other ideas and Zoro's encouraging it for all he's worth. Zoro's hands are on Sanji's ass and Sanji can feel just how into this the other man is and his own body is just as eager. His mind is running ideas of just how good Zoro would feel under him and how much he's wanted this and for how long. He could get to hear just what Zoro sounds like and see his expression and- no he can't. He'll get to do that some other time, he will.

"You're too drunk." He clarifies, pushing Zoro away from him.

"But I really, really want you. I think about it so much." Zoro whines unhappily, his forehead dropping against Sanji's shoulder in despair. Sanji's entire nervous system jerks at Zoro's words. Zoro fantasies about him. It makes sense seeing how far they've gone but hearing it from him is a whole other thing.

"God, me too." Sanji says in a choked voice as a shiver runs through him.

"But we could-" Zoro starts again, his voice hopefully.

"But you're still too drunk. Go to bed and, I don't know, jerk off or something if you can't deal with it." Sanji mutters, looking at the floor with his face heating up at having to even say that to Zoro.

"Yeah, ok." Zoro sighs, pulling back from Sanji and lacing his fingers together behind his head to give Sanji a smug grin.

"I'll be thinking about you the whole time though." Zoro grins deviously.

"Okay, time for me to go." Sanji says in a high strained voice as he stiffly marches himself out of Zoro's flat and shuts the door after him. He hears a deliberately fake porn moan come through the door and Sanji grits his teeth.

"Fuck you Zoro!" Sanji snaps irritably.

"Please!" Zoro calls back with a trace of laughter. Sanji grinds his teeth and stomps off home knowing full well that he'll be taking his own advice and thinking about Zoro thinking about him.


	17. Chapter 17

"And I took him on a date and everything!" Zoro says happily, finishing his story. He's putting away groceries as Robin thumbs through his movie collection. He's not got anything in the horror genre that she hasn't seen with him but he has a lot of stuff that she doesn't own and she said that she wants to rewatch some things at home. Zoro suspects that she's just there to spy on his love life.

Wow, he actually has a love life now. That's a strange thought. He'd never figured that romantic stuff would be something for him, he had sex and he had friends, mixing the two seemed both like a bad idea and unneeded. Going on a date with Sanji was fun though! He took him somewhere that they both enjoyed and it was just like the two of them having fun had been before, he knew loads of shit that Sanji liked, he could do this for ages without repeating himself. That was the point of dates after all, showing the person that you're with a good time. He didn't have to worry about Sanji finding out that he was attracted to him any more and so he had felt better for it.

"That's really sweet. How did it go?" Robin asks with a happy smile from her place knelt by his DVD rack.

"It was great! We broke into the zoo and I showed him everything, it was just us and it was... it was perfect." he smiles dopily. He was in the middle of sorting through his DVD's for her but he's long since got distracted.

"Of course no date is complete without breaking and entering." Robin chuckles lowly, her eyes sparking with mischief.

"Shut up." Zoro grumbles, shoving her in the shoulder and he flicks through the titles a little more.

"So what, did your eyes meet over the lion enclosure with swelling violin music and swooning?" Robin teases.

"Shut up." Zoro responds, crinkling his nose in distaste. He enjoyed his date but it doesn't mean that he has to like that hollywood crap. Robin's mouth curls in amusement and she returns to her browsing.

"Classic Romero? You can't go wrong with that." Zoro suggests, pointing at the titles and aptly changing the subject.

"That's why I own them. Can I borrow this?" Robin asks, holding up Hitchcock's Psycho to him.

"You bought me that one." Zoro frowns at her.

"Yes, but I don't own it. Anyway, I'm impressed that you actually asked Sanji to date you so soon. I was expecting at least another month or two of indecision from you." Robin laughs lightly.

"Your confidence in me is flattering. Sure, take that one. What about The Shining?" he suggests, holding it up to her.

"Oh, absolutely. And these two and... yes..." Robin hums as she plucks out a few more titles.

Zoro smiles in relaxation. Everything is amazing right now. He's got his job, one of his friends is over and it's pleasant. Also he's dating his best friend and everything is just so nice. He's really really happy in a way that he hasn't been in a long time. Robin had been right, he needed this.

"So how did you ask him out?" the dark haired woman asks with a coy smile. Robin isn't a gossip, if she gets told something in secret then she never shares it with anyone but it doesn't mean that she doesn't adore getting all of the juicy details out of people.

"How do you mean?" Zoro asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean how did it all start?" Robin prompts him, poking him in the side with a movie case.

To his surprise Zoro finds himself reddening as he awkwardly explains their encounter in the laundromat, he skips out on some of the details, Robin doesn't need to know that much after all.

"And then you asked him to be your boyfriend?" Robin says slowly, her blue eyes piercing into him.

"I told him that I didn't want it to be a one time thing and he agreed, then a while later we went on the date that I just told you about." Zoro answers with a frown.

"But you asked him out. At some point you said 'Sanji will you go out with me', right?" Robin asks sharply. Zoro looks at her and senses that there is a wrong answer here but that lying will also be worse.

"Nnnno... but we went on a date it's pretty cl-OUCH!" Zoro yelps as Robin whacks him on the head with the DVD cases.

"You. Have. To. Be. Clear. On. This!" Robin shouts, smacking him on the head each time.

"It's fine! QUIT HITTING ME!" Zoro yells as Robin pushes him over and starts slapping and pinching anywhere that she can reach. Zoro doesn't want to hurt her so he's limited in trying to defend himself, Robin however has no such reservations and aims to hurt.

"Stop it! OW! That HURTS!" Zoro protests loudly, shoving her away and getting a nasty Chinese burn for his trouble. He's howling and scrabbling away when the front door bursts open with a wide eyed Sanji in it.

"ZORO! Are you... what?" Sanji blinks, the key to Zoro's front door still in his hand as he stares down at the two of them. Robin pauses for only a moment before resuming beating Zoro about the head with his own DVD cases.

"You're an idiot!" She yells at him.

"Help me!" Zoro pleads, reaching out for Sanji whilst he tries to hold Robin off of him without putting his hand anywhere inappropriate. Unfortunately with Robin as generously endowed as she is that happens to be a difficult task.

"What did you do?" Sanji frowns, putting down the shopping bag that he was carrying onto Zoro's sofa and walking over to the pair of them as if Zoro wasn't presently in dire need of help.

"Nothing!" Zoro insists.

"EXACTLY!" Robin snaps and pinches his side, making Zoro yelp.

The woman stands up with an irritated huff, straightens out her dress and runs her fingers through her hair whilst Zoro stays sprawled on the ground whimpering in embarrassment and stinging pain.

"Do it, or next time I see you I'll rip your balls off." Robin threatens and snatches up the DVD cases.

"He's all yours." She smiles stiffly at Sanji and takes her exit.

"You were so much help. How can I ever repay you?" Zoro deadpans from his place on the floor and swats at Sanji's leg. The blonde just sits on the arm of the sofa and grins down at Zoro.

"I would never lay a hand on a woman." Sanji says with a smirk.

"Hah. Tell me again about your previous dating problems?" Zoro laughs, sitting up. Sanji scowls at him and puts his foot on Zoro's chest, shoving him back down to the floor and pinning him there.

"You're an asshole. Stay down there where you belong." Sanji growls at him.

"And here I thought I'd found a guy without any real kinks, but hey, whatever does it for you. Want me to beg or call you sir or something?" Zoro responds deviously, with a filthy waggle of his eyebrows. Sanji yelps and yanks his foot off of Zoro like he's been burned, his face goes a burning red too. Zoro is very magnanimous and only laughs for a few seconds, though it is very loud laughter.

He pushes himself up onto his knees with a few giggles and shuffles closer to the sofa and his blushing boyfriend. He leans in and kisses Sanji's lips, managing to coax the soft haired blonde into deepening the kiss. Zoro smiles into the kiss, how can Robin think that Sanji doesn't know what's going on here?

"How was your day?" Zoro asks quietly and kisses Sanji again quickly.

"Pretty good, I made a few really perfect dishes and my old man seemed pleased. Plus I got to kick Carne in the ass, literally." Sanji smiles and kisses him back.

"You?" The blonde asks.

"Had a couple of classes, mainly older kids studying for exams. Quiet and kinda boring, I've been here all afternoon. Then Robin came over to borrow movies and beat me up." Zoro answers grumpily.

"My heart bleeds for you. I brought beers for movie night and I'm making you dinner. Unless you didn't get the groceries that I told you to, in which case I'm drinking the beer and you're going shopping." Sanji says, poking Zoro with his foot.

"I got 'em, I got 'em." Zoro sighs, getting to his feet and walking to the fridge, to open it and wave dramatically at the food that he'd bought from Sanji's very specific list.

"Perfect. Beer?" Sanji asks, popping the cap off of his own with the multi tool wine bottle opener and beer bottle opener that he's started keeping at Zoro's.

"Don't have to ask me twice." Zoro says and takes one of the unopened bottles from the bag and slams the top off of it by smashing his hand against it just right on the counter top.

"You're a goddamned peasant. Why was Robin torturing you anyway?" Sanji asks as he takes a sip of his beer. Zoro wrinkles his nose. There's no way that Sanji doesn't know, he's not going to spoil their evening by getting all awkward and clingy with a huge are they/aren't they conversation.

"She's just pissed because I didn't do exactly what she thinks that I should do in the way that she thinks I should do it. It's fine." Zoro says, shaking his head.

The two of them settle into the same easy pattern that they always have. Talking about whatever random shit crosses their minds, arguing about the same things. Sanji bitches about his coworkers or spitballs ideas for recipes that go completely over Zoro's head but it still seems to help the cook. Zoro has to take the beer away from his mouth because smiling whilst drinking is likely to end up with him wearing about as much of his beer as he'll get in his mouth. Still, the smile stays, everything is so similar to before.

Still, despite not wanting to make things awkward there is something that Zoro does have to bring up.

"Hey, uh... about last night." He starts uncomfortably.

"Yeah, how is that hangover going?" Sanji grins at him as he sets up his preparation area in Zoro's kitchen and starts to scrub vegetables.

"Well, after you making me drink water and take painkillers I didn't really have one." Zoro answers with an easy shrug.

"Fucking lucky asshole. You deserve a week long hangover for that and you got nothing?" the blonde grumbles miserably.

"I've got great genes, what can I say?" Zoro answers smugly.

"There's an innuendo there about getting into your jeans but I'm not gonna go for it." the blonde says with a smirk as he chops some tomatoes with a blade that moves so fast that Zoro hardly sees it.

"Speaking of..." Zoro says awkwardly because actually that's kind of the line that he was going down. Not the line of innuendo but close.

"I wanted to thank you for last night. For turning me down." He says quietly.

Sanji's knife stops and is put down. The blonde wipes his hands off on the apron that he's wearing and has started keeping at Zoro's place. With that done he turns to Zoro and looks at him carefully, like he's trying to read every signal and word that Zoro is saying as if it's of some specific importance. He's even doing the squinty eye thing that he does when he's really focusing on something.

"Why?" Sanji asks without any emotion in his voice and scrutinizes Zoro for his answer.

"Because... it wouldn't have been as good and I want to actually remember it properly. I'll admit that I'm missing a few bits of our walk back and the drinking contest." Zoro admits. It's still rubbing him the wrong way that he lost to Nami again. Next time he's not even going to drink at all before hand, maybe he'll make sure that he lines his stomach with pasta or bread beforehand to give himself every advantage. That feels a little like cheating but if it is then he can surely bet that Nami was doing just that, she's competitive as all hell.

"Okay, but why did you want to remember it perfectly?" Sanji says, pressing him for more answers and still watching him like a scientist testing a theory on a lab rat.

"Because it's something that I really want so why would I want to risk not remembering it? And, you know, first times are special or whatever." Zoro answers uncertainly. What's going on here.

"'or whatever'? What's that supposed to mean?" the blonde demands. He's not angry at all, not like Zoro would expect but he's just relentless about it.

"Okay, no 'or whatever'. They're supposed to be special." he clarifies.

"Supposed to be." Sanji responds slowly, staring at Zoro with a frown starting to pinch in his brow.

"Is there a goddamn echo in here? Yeah, they're supposed to be. Isn't that the general consensus of how these things go?" Zoro snaps as he restrains the urge to yell.

"You sound like you're just repeating something that you've heard." Sanji says quietly, his eyes finally breaking contact with Zoro's.

"No, you do. You're the one parroting back everything that I say!" Zoro retorts. A muscle in Sanji's jaw twitches.

Zoro grits his teeth, this is going nowhere except into an argument that Zoro doesn't even get. He's got no idea what Sanji's going on about or why he's suddenly getting grilled on this. He'd just wanted to thank the blonde for being considerate, plus Sanji had realised that he was probably too drunk to really agree. Okay, he was definitely too drunk to agree, goddamn Nami.

He frowns and tries to imagine what advice Robin would give him in this situation. Whenever romance puzzled the fuck out of him she was always there to explain or theorize. Robin watched their friends like a hawk so whenever Zoro needed insight Robin had it with laser precision. Robin would tell him just to talk to him, just to ask him what was wrong. Of course Robin also wanted him to ask Sanji about whether or not they both were on agreement about whether or not they are dating, but that can come later. Maybe.

"Look, you're clearly pissed and I've obviously said something wrong but I don't understand what it is, so do you mind enlightening me?" Zoro asks in a calm voice after taking a deep breath to make sure it came out right and not angry. He thinks that he did a pretty good job about that, Robin would be pleased. Maybe.

"I'm not pissed." the cook answers with a shrug and chops more tomatoes.

"I... really don't get what's going on here." Zoro says with a frown.

"Exactly." Sanji says tightly and puts the tomatoes in a bowl and starts on chopping onions.

"What?" Zoro asks in utter bewilderment.

"Nothing. It's fine. It's nothing." Sanji says with a shake of his head.

Zoro just watches the cook with complete confusion, he has no idea what just happened there but he gets the distinct feeling that he just failed some test that he didn't even know he was taking and that he doesn't even get to know the results. Should he press the cook more to get him to explain himself or would that only make this worse?

"You know how I've told you about how all people who work in kitchens are gossipy sons of bitches right?" Sanji asks conversationally as if they hadn't just been having the weirdest conversation. Okay, whatever, if Sanji's going to drop this then he can too. After all, he has no idea what that was so it makes more sense to just go with the more sensible things that Sanji's saying.

"You're just as bad a gossip, but yeah, go on." Zoro grins. Sanji flashes him an unimpressed glare but he can't deny it as he is literally talking about the people that he works with right now.

"Well apparently they've been talking about us when I'm not there. I only caught it because I was in early and doing stock in the pantry where they couldn't see me." Sanji continues.

"Okay." Zoro says slowly.

"Well half of them think that we're having some fucking around in secret on every flat surface in the restaurant. A bunch of them are divided on whether or not you have a secret family which is why we're being so 'secretive' about it." Sanji says with a grin and Zoro nearly spits his beer out in shock.

"Wow, those guys have too much free time." Zoro mutters, shaking his head in dismay.

"True, I should make them work more. They're just making up shit but I thought it was hysterical." Sanji chuckles and drops the rest of his vegetables into the large pan that he has already heated. It sizzles when it hits.

"Hm... unless you're just subtly suggesting that you think we should christen the flat surfaces of the Baratie...?" Zoro asks with a grin, half serious and half not. After all, thinking about that is what has ruined his concentration many times before. All Zoro gets for an answer is a flat slap on the arm with a spatula and a dark look. Okay, so perhaps no kitchen sex them. Damn.

Zoro watches Sanji cook for a few long moments. Silence between them is nothing new, it's one of the things that Zoro liked about Sanji after all. The two of them are usually as content to sit there in a comfortable silence as they are with talking. This doesn't feel like that though, not on Zoro's end anyway. His mind is still buzzing with Sanji's strangeness earlier and in light of that he almost feels like Robin's insistence that he clarify things with Sanji is even more important now than it was before.

"Hey... can I ask a stupid question?" Zoro asks slowly and takes a long sip of his beer.

"Well, you're the one asking it so most likely yes." Sanji shoots back, not even bothering to look at him but a grin still curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Asshole." Zoro mutters and punches Sanji lightly in the arm. Well, reasonably lightly anyway.

"I just wanted to ask, I mean, it's stupid really... but... we are dating aren't we?" Zoro asks uneasily. It seems so obvious and silly but as the words come out of his mouth he feels this claw of dread run up his spine and it feels like that moment of weightlessness that you experience before crashing to the ground. The fact that Sanji hasn't laughed at his silly question and said 'of course, moron' or something like that is not easing Zoro's feelings at all.

Instead the blonde just turns the heat off on the pan and puts it onto a cold ring. He sets down his spatula and turns to Zoro, his blue eyes watching Zoro carefully all over again.

"You tell me." Sanji says quietly.

"What's with the Confucian attitude all of a sudden? It's a simple question!" Zoro argues, his patience with Sanji finally fraying thin.

"Why do you ask?" Sanji asks, ignoring Zoro's words entirely.

"Because I want to know! That's the purpose of a fucking question! I want to know because it seems like a goddamn important thing to know and neither of us actually said one way or the other when this all started and it'd be fucked up to not think the same thing!" He shouts, putting his beer down on the side with a clunk because he's going to spill it at this rate if he keeps holding it.

"It is important. Do you think that we're dating or not?" the blonde questions him as he takes a pull of his own beer. Zoro doesn't know if it's casualness or for courage but both piss him off.

"I think we are! Am I wrong here or not? Just give me a straight answer!" He snaps.

"I thought that we were too." the blonde says softly and looks off to the side as he leans against the counter.

Silence stretches between the two of them as Zoro processes what Sanji just said.

"What's... what's with the past tense? Unless you broke up with me and I didn't notice..." Zoro says, his voice quiet as his system goes numb.

"I've not done anything like that." the blonde says with the first hint of a smile on his face, though it does little to ease his nerves. Especially as that smile drops quickly.

"Zoro... what do you feel for me?" he asks Zoro.

"What do you mean? I love you, that's why I'm with you. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't, what kind of a dumb question is that?" Zoro answers. Seriously, why would he be dating Sanji if he didn't feel that for him? He knows what Sanji's been through and he wouldn't have let himself make any kind of move on the blonde if he wasn't certain that he felt this strongly for him. He hadn't spent all that time agonizing about it for nothing!

"Do you really? Because that's not usually how relationships go at the start. It's supposed to take time to fall in love." Sanji says with a wince and now he's not looking at Zoro any more but instead at the floor.

"Hey, it's not like I just picked you up at a bar! It did take time, we've known each other for a decent length of time and I-" Zoro starts but Sanji cuts him off.

"I'm not saying that." Sanji says with a tight shake of his head.

"So what ARE you saying?" Zoro asks through gritted teeth, restraining the urge to point out that Sanji had said exactly that.

"I'm saying... I just wonder if you even know what love really is. If you're capable of it is all." Sanji says to the fridge to the left of Zoro's head, like he can't say these things and make eye contact at the same time.

"What the fuck are you saying cook? I'm not some kind of psychopath!" He yells angrily and that snaps Sanji's gaze back to him.

"I didn't say that you were a psychopath!" Sanji says quickly, holding his hands up in a calming gesture but Zoro's having none of it.

"No, you just said that you think that I don't know what I'm talking about and that I'm 'incapable' of feeling love? What the FUCK Sanji?!" Zoro yells angrily, trying to push down the sting in his chest. How can Sanji say something like this to him?

For his part Sanji looks scared and regretful, as if he's opened up and said too much and desperately wants to take it all back. Zoro feels no pity for him however, if Sanji has these kinds of thoughts about him then Zoro deserves to know about them! How long has Sanji thought this about him? Robin was right, if he hadn't asked Sanji this then who knows how long he could have gone into his relationship with Sanji before he found this out? He'd thought that the pair of them were on the same page, that they were both in love, dating each other and that things were great. Clearly Zoro had been misguided on that.

"Look I'm not- okay, calm down. You know how Luffy's never dated anyone because he's not interested? How it's just not something that he's wired to do even though he has friends?" Sanji says in a panicked tone.

"I know that he hasn't dated, but I don't know what goes on in his head, just what he tells me." Zoro says flatly. This isn't any of Sanji's business and the same clearly doesn't apply to him because as far as he knows Luffy's never slept with anyone and Zoro obviously has. Sanji knows that so why is he going down this route?

"Ace and Marco said that you could be the same with romance. You know, just not getting it and how you might think that you were in love when you just felt strongly for someone platonically and-" Sanji babbles but he's startled into silence when Zoro slams his hand on the counter top.

"There are so many fucking things wrong with what you just said." Zoro says darkly, glaring at Sanji as hard as he can.

"But I'm gonna just start at the beginning. You were talking about me, behind my back, to Marco and ACE?!" Zoro snarls furiously.

"I wasn't talking about you behind your back! They started it! Ace was just telling me not to get involved with you and I-" Sanji says anxiously.

"What are you five?! I don't give a shit who started it! You were talking about me, about us, to them of all people? You know that Ace and I used to fuck and you don't even really know the two of them! Why would you do that?!" He demands half angry and half hurt. Or perhaps all of both.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been talking about you, even if they started it. Which they did. But... what they said makes sense. I mean, you had to get talked into the idea of love by one of your students, you've never been interested in it, you thought it was dumb and now suddenly you say that you're in love with me? What am I supposed to think?" Sanji says, clearly trying to reason with Zoro. Zoro does not need to be reasoned with here, he isn't the one being irrational and awful, Sanji is.

"You're supposed to trust me! If I say something then I mean it, you know that. Or I thought you did. Fuck." Zoro hisses, turning away from Sanji and pacing across the room. He combs his hands through his hair one after the other, his fingers pressing into his scalp as he does so in some kind of gesture that's somewhere between a self soothing head massage and an attempt to rip his hair out in frustration.

"I do trust you but... but you have to admit it fits. How would you know the difference if you can't feel romantic love? I'm not saying that you're lying, just that you might not know what it's supposed to feel like. You said it yourself that you've never mixed sex with people that you're friends with. I know that you love me, I love you too but I knew that when we were just friends. How do I know... how do you know that you're not just assuming that because it's both at once for you?" Sanji says from behind him. Zoro freezes and drops his hands. He feels like every muscle in his body is pulled taut with tension and emotion, holding him perfectly in place. He's clenching his teeth so hard that his head hurts.

"I don't want to have this conversation any more." Zoro says in hard clipped tones. He keeps his gaze straight ahead, his back to Sanji and he focuses on the fist dent that he made in the plaster of his wall when he was angry at being fired. He reminds himself of all of the good in Sanji, all of the reasons that he loves him, he remembers how in tune with him Sanji was then. He breathes in and out, trying to let go of his feelings because if this keeps up then it will only end badly and he really doesn't want that. He cares too much to let that happen.

"You can't just opt out of this conversation Zoro, you started it. Besides you wanted to make sure that we were thinking the same thing. We need to talk about this. What if you're just confused?" Sanji says, placing a hand on Zoro's shoulder. Zoro shakes him off sharply and turns back to face Sanji with an expression so harsh that the blonde actually flinches back from him.

"Get out, you patronizing asshole." Zoro snarls, snapping his arm out in a sharp and brutal point to the door. His whole body is shaking with barely restrained emotion and Zoro has no idea which one is likely to break through first, anger or hurt.

Sanji stares at him in wide eyed horror. Zoro's only ever thrown him out once before and that was to stop him overhearing Daz talking about him. They've never had an argument so bad that Zoro's had to throw him out before. Sure, they argue all of the time but both of them have the common sense to not go for each other's throat like this. Sanji isn't pissing him off, Sanji is wounding him.

"You're... you're kicking me out?" Sanji asks in a tone of stunned shock.

"I don't want to have this conversation right now, probably not ever but if you stay here then I'm going to say something that I can't take back so just get the fuck out." Zoro growls at him. He's really trying to be the bigger man here, he is.

"No! We need to talk about this and you can't just throw me out because you can't handle this! This is why this is important, if we can't even talk about how you actually feel then how do you expect this to work? This is how relationships work Zoro!" Sanji shouts back.

"Don't tell me that, I-" Zoro cuts himself off, breathes in and out sharply through his nose and starts again, "just go."

"No way, if you've got something to say to me then say it. Come on." Sanji says toughly, his blue eyes shining with steely determination.

Zoro's last strand of patience and self control snaps. He thinks that he can even hear it go.

"Fine." He says coldly, dropping his arm and clenching his fist at his side. He sees Sanji shift his balance as if Zoro intends to punch him. He doesn't. Sanji can shake off a punch and Zoro's not going to go for that. If Sanji is going to be this awful to him then Zoro's not going to hold back either.

"You're a fucking asshole for presuming to know what's in my head. I tell you that I love you and you say that you don't think I'm capable of it, something you decided with an ex-lover of mine no less." Zoro says, his voice sounding cold even to his own ears.

"I apologised for that, it was a dick move talking to Ace and-" Sanji cuts in but Zoro is having none of that.

"Shut up, I wasn't done." He barks at him and Sanji's expression darkens. He doesn't like this but he literally asked for it so fuck him.

"You're trying to look into my head and see how I feel and compare it to what you feel, but you can't do that. You can't do that to anyone, you just have to trust people when they tell you how they feel and see what they do and say. Even if what I feel is different to what you feel how does it fucking matter?" He says angrily.

"Because I've been hurt enough! I keep falling for people who don't love me back as much as I love them! I'm not going to do that to myself again!" Sanji bristles angrily.

"I KNEW THAT ALREADY!" Zoro yells at him, really shouting for the first time.

"In case you fucking forgot I'm your best friend too, I probably know more about you than anyone else except your old man! You think I didn't agonize about not wanting to hurt you before I got into this? Do you think I'm that selfish and stupid?" He demands furiously. After all that time that he's spent fretting about whether he was willing to risk doing that it hurts to hear that Sanji thinks that the thought didn't even cross his mind.

"You were supposed to trust me. I trusted you." He says, the volume going from his voice all of a sudden.

Now Sanji looks really hurt, he's finally starting to get just what he's done and the blonde reaches out to him on instinct but Zoro steps back with a shake of his head. He can't stop what he's saying now. He knows that he should but something vindictive in him needs to see this through, because Sanji knows that he's hurt him but he doesn't get why, not yet. If he doesn't understand then he'll just do it again and Sanji isn't the only one who's not prepared to get hurt again.

"You want to look into my head and see if what I've got matches what you have, well you can't. And hey, maybe you're right. Maybe the wiring in my head is fucked like Luffy's apparently is, seeing as that's how you see it." He says with a shake of his head.

"I didn't say that. You're not wired wrong or broken, neither of you are. I was just saying that love might not-" Sanji tries to say, a vain attempt to mend his blunder.

"No, but you think that it's not real compared to what you feel. Maybe you just keep telling yourself that it's 'cause you just loved them more than they loved you so that you aren't to blame at all when shit goes wrong. What is it that they say? The only constant in all of your failed relationships is you?" Zoro spits and Sanji looks like Zoro's just slapped him but something in Zoro can't stop going.

"But what do I know? Maybe you're right. I don't get it. I don't get romance films, they're boring and the people and the plots are stupid. I don't get the point of giving people flowers or staring into people's eyes all misty like. Maybe I don't get all the things that you do, who knows?" Zoro says with a shrug and he feels his hands starting to shake because a small part of him is scared that maybe Sanji is right and maybe he is broken, but mostly it's because he's angry.

"But don't you fucking dare say that I don't love you, you asshole. I'd do damn near anything for you. If you called me up and said that you needed me to help you hide a body you know I'd do it, hell, I'd probably have been the one to kill the person for you! I'd give you anything I have if you needed it without you even asking. I trust you and you're the first person that I've been willing to risk dating, I'm breaking every rule that I have for you. I wanted to be with you because it seemed to make you happy and it made me happy. Isn't that the whole point?" He demands.

"It is but- but I don't want to get my heart broken again Zoro! I can't!" Sanji shouts at him.

"So you'll just get in and break mine first?!" Zoro shouts back.

Zoro doesn't know what it is. Maybe it was building the whole time and it was just the movement, the flinch away from Sanji's shout, or maybe it's just too much. Either way he feels something hot run down his cheek and realises that he's actually crying from anger or pain or a mix of the two.

"Zoro- Zoro I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt your feelings I just-" Sanji pleads quickly.

"Go apologise to someone with real feelings." He snaps and turns. He's out of his own front door and down his stairs before he knows what he's doing. He's halfway down the street before the absurdity of it makes him notice what he's doing. He couldn't throw Sanji out of his home so he threw himself out.

The front door to his building slams and Sanji's voice is shouting after him. Zoro takes off running. Sanji might have a sense of direction where he doesn't but Zoro runs across town every day without stopping and right now he's pretty sure that he's never run so fast.

He can't deal with this right now. He's pretty sure that if he and Sanji ever really were dating then they're not now. He doesn't even know that they're friends any more if Sanji thinks so little of him. He's furious and hurt and... and part of him is scared. Despite all his accusations Sanji does know him, he knows how he thinks and if Sanji thinks that some part of him is fucked up or missing entirely then... then maybe he is. He's always known that his policy on keeping sex and emotions separate was strange to people but he'd figured that he was just being smarter and avoiding unnecessary shit. But perhaps his is warped and confused or broken.

He finally stops running when he can't suck air into his chest fast enough to sustain his speed and he stops, dizzy and worn out. He's long since stopped his uncharacteristic tears and a lot of the pent up emotion in him has been dulled by exertion and exhaustion. He looks around shakily and realises that he has no idea where he is. He pats himself down and realises that he has neither his wallet, phone or keys on him. He knows most people's phone numbers off by heart, so it's easy enough to wander into a nearby business and ask to use their phone. He doesn't want to go home, Sanji will certainly be there. He also doesn't want to go to someone who's going to make him talk about what just happened or someone who'll let Sanji in if the blonde pleads enough. That cuts down the list of people that he can call, but thankfully he's got someone in mind who fits that description just fine.


	18. Chapter 18

Sanji sits on Zoro's sofa with his feet up on the cushions and his arms wrapped around his knees. On the cushion to his right are Zoro's keys, wallet and phone, all of which Zoro is currently without. 

His fingers dig tightly into the seams of his jeans by his knees and he's just staring at the wall by the door, past Zoro's switched off TV. He's not really looking at the wall either, it's just where his eyes happen to be pointed to. He feels like he should be crying. He's just had another person that he loves run out on him after ripping his heart out. Zoro couldn't have picked much worse things to say to him, but then again that's the risk of letting someone know you that well, it means that when they want to they can destroy you completely. So yes, he should be crying. 

He's also so angry that he should be screaming, shouting and kicking things in a rage. He's angry at himself and he's angry at Zoro. Zoro said those things on purpose, he knew exactly where all of Sanji's weak spots are and went for them with sniper like precision. Zoro hurt him and he'd meant to do it too. More than that though, he's angry at himself. He's angry at himself in orders of magnitude worse than he's angry at Zoro. What the fuck was he thinking when he threw those kinds of accusations at Zoro? He'd acted like he knew more about Zoro than Zoro did, he took someone else's word over Zoro's and the word of one of Zoro's jilted ex's no less! He wasn't wrong to bring it up, but instead of gently raising the subject like he should have done he threw it out there so hard it went into orbit. When Zoro had denied his point he should have backed down, he should have let Zoro talk. He should have done so many things. 

He is equally angry and distraught, which leaves him frozen in the middle on Zoro's sofa with the two huge emotional weights vying to be let out and coming out at a stalemate and hanging him in some purgatory in the middle. It leaves him feeling almost numb. 

He runs his finger over Zoro's phone, if Zoro had taken it with him then Sanji is certain that he would have called the other man by now. He has no idea what he would have said though. He still doesn't. His first instinct is to say sorry. Sorry for fucking things up, sorry that the whole thing got out of control. He'd say anything to get Zoro back here and he'd give anything to go back in time and kick his past self in the head for being so stupid. That's probably not well formulated enough to have done the job anyway. Just because he has a lot of feelings doesn't mean that he can just throw them in Zoro's direction and hope for the best. But that's what he'd done, wasn't it? He's so fucking stupid. 

He picks up Zoro's phone and flips it open, and yeah, Zoro still has a flip phone because apparently the man has never moved out of the nineties. It's an unfair accusation though really, Zoro's phone is relatively new and the two of them have argued long and hard about that inane shit. The screen inside lights up, tiny compared to Sanji's own, and the first thing that Sanji sees is a picture of the two of them. It was a few months ago at one of Franky's video game nights that he'd started hosting and Zoro had started dragging him to. The two of them are perched on the edge of the sofa, controllers in hand and utter concentration on their faces as they race their video game cars on screen. Zoro's tongue is poking out in concentration and he's elbowing Sanji in the side to break his concentration whilst Sanji kicks him in the leg. Someone else must have taken it but Sanji doesn't know who, he's never even seen the picture before. 

Suddenly the war between anger and pain inside of him is won and Sanji goes from staring numbly at Zoro's phone to howling and sobbing into the sleeves of his shirt. His shoulders shake and his lungs hurt but he simply can't stop. How had today gone so wrong? He'd shown up with the intention of making dinner, watching a shitty movie and curling up with Zoro. He hadn't even been sure that he was going to bring up what Ace said at all. But he couldn't even do that, could he? Every time Zoro said something Sanji's brain was whirring in the background, trying to work out if Zoro really meant what he said or if he was just saying what he thought that he should say. Then, before he knew it the whole thing had spiraled out of control. 

He wipes his face on his sleeves, knowing full well that his eyes and his cheeks are going to be red now, but there's nothing that he can do about that. It is his fault and he fucked up but... but Zoro knows about his past. Maybe he shouldn't have given a flying fuck about what Ace and Marco think but after everything that's happened to him it... it spooked him. Zoro had to have known that, so why didn't get get the benefit of the doubt there? But, shit, Zoro doesn't even know how to do that does he? Not in a patronizing way but just as a statement of fact. This is, or perhaps was if they really are over now, Zoro's first relationship. Sanji remembers what his first relationships were like and he screwed things up left right and centre, all young teenagers do. When you're new to that kind of thing it's hard to apologise and admit that you were wrong, it's hard to see how someone else feels but it's something that you learn with practice. Zoro has had zero practice. 

Shit, he's been too hard on the guy and blown the whole thing, though Zoro wasn't exactly easy on him either.

'the only constant in all of your failed relationships is you'

Sanji winces. That had been one of Zoro's last barbs, one of them aimed right at Sanji's heart in a big 'fuck you' gesture. He'd said that Zoro's feelings weren't real and Zoro had insinuated that Sanji was too broken to date anyone anyway. They're both awful. 

Even knowing that Zoro probably doesn't think that, after all he's said the opposite before when Sanji told him more about his past romances, it's still sticking under his skin. It's like a splinter that he can't get out that hurts and itches, one that he can't take his mind off of. It's one of those deep dark fears in his mind that he's really the one who wrecked all of his other relationships, that it was his fault and not theirs. Sure, some of them cheated on him, but had he driven to that? He's too needy but he's also too busy, he's too obsessive with getting everything right that he doesn't notice what his partners really want from him and he's too obviously fixated on making any relationship be the relationship that lasts forever. 

He had been so sure that Zoro was different, even as a friend he'd been sure that he'd have Zoro around for life. When they started dating... even if he wasn't sure that was what it was, he hadn't quite dared to hope. Even then he'd felt that this was different to every other time. His heart sinks when he remembers telling his old man and his coworkers time and again that 'This one is different! They're the one!' So now he'd done it again. 

There was one exception though, usually when a relationship failed he would realize how wrong he was right away and feel like an idiot for thinking that whomever he had been dating was different. In reality they had all been the same, just another painful ex waiting to happen. His heart would always come crashing back down to that realization and he'd hate himself for being so stupid again. With Zoro though... even now he doesn't feel like falling for Zoro was a mistake. Sure, everything he said today was a mistake but Zoro himself absolutely was not. This was something worth saving. Whether Zoro would give him a chance to do that was another matter. 

“I need a drink.” Sanji mutters to himself and gets up to cross the room. He ignores the half made meal still on the stove and he also bypasses both of their open beer bottles. The room looks strange, like Zoro's just stepped out of it for a second and he might return at any point to come back with some question about which movie they should watch. Sanji shakes off the feeling and opens Zoro's cupboard. There's alcohol in there, hard liquor but whilst tempting that's probably a bad idea so he bypasses the glasses and booze and takes a mug from the other side of the cupboard instead and turns the kettle on. Part of him wants coffee but he doesn't need to be any more jittery than he already is. Instead he goes for Zoro's stash of green tea. 

'Green tea, marimo? Did you get it to go with your hair?'

'No, I got it so that I could have something here that I like and you don't, that way you won't steal it!'

Sanji smiles weakly, his fingers lingering on the packet. Both of them had got so comfortable with each other that they'd stopped asking if they could have a drink or something to eat and instead just rifled through each other's cupboards. The joke was on Zoro though because Sanji had started drinking his tea out of spite and actually grown to like it. Now the calming flavour and the colour made him think only of Zoro. 

This may not have been the best choice of drink. 

He returns to the main room with his tea in hand and looks down at Zoro's phone, keys and wallet. 

Sanji needs to stay here because if he leaves then Zoro can't get back into his own home. Worryingly though it means that Zoro has no means of reaching anyone or buying anything. If Zoro needs a cab or food then he can't get it. He needs to call Zoro's friends, maybe he can find out who Zoro's gone to and have them pick up his stuff, then Sanji can leave and Zoro can have his home back. Then all Sanji can do is hope that things settle down enough for the two of them to work things out.

He settles down onto the sofa, sniffs and tries out his voice to see if he sounds like he's been crying too badly. He sounds ok. He takes a sip of too hot tea and calls Robin. Zoro always trusted Robin for advice so it makes sense that he'd go to her. 

“Hello Sanji.” Robin says smoothly down the line.

“Robin, is Zoro there?” Sanji asks.

“Zoro? No. Last I saw him he was with you, so unless he's become really lost in going to the bathroom in his own home then I'm pretty sure he should still be there. Unless there's some reason why he would have left.” Robin says, her tone starting out joking but moving into serious. Sanji's mouth works silently as he remembers the other thing that Zoro often said about Robin, that she's terrifying. 

“Sanji. Why is Zoro not there? What happened?” Robin asks him flatly. 

“We... we had a fight.” Sanji says, his voice cracking on the word fight and suddenly he's crying again. He tries to keep it as silent as possible with his hand muffling his mouth but he's sure that Robin can hear it, at least a little. 

“Have you tried calling him?” Robin asks him slowly.

“H-he... he left his phone and everything here when he ran off. It was really bad, he left his keys and his wallet too. I'm worried. If he's with you and he just doesn't want me to know then, then that's... I just don't want him to be without his things. I can go to you with them and he can come back or you could-” Sanji chokes out.

“Sanji, Sanji shh. He's not here, he really isn't.” Robin says soothingly, making Sanji sob wetly down the phone. He's a complete mess, he's been plenty wrecked by relationships before but never this bad by one this new. But once again, Zoro is different to all of the others, even now.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you up like this and- fuck, I'm a wreck. Shit I shouldn't be swearing at you and oh god I just did it again.” Sanji curses unhelpfully. 

“What happened Sanji?” Robin asks again, her voice gentle. 

“It was a nasty argument, it's my fault I shouldn't have- the point is it ended with him running off out of the building. I tried to catch him but he's really fast when he wants to be.” he laughs hollowly. Just the other day he'd been drooling over Zoro and his running, but now it's not such a good thing.

“And he left everything there?” Robin clarifies. 

“Yeah. I mean, I can stay but I doubt he'd wa-want me here.” Sanji answers, his voice hitching. 

“Sanji, it's probably not that bad. He'll probably be back before too long. He's likely just run off to blow off some steam for a few minutes.” Robin says easily. 

“It's been almost an hour already, it was pretty bad Robin.” Sanji says tightly. Robin doesn't say anything for a little bit.

“Okay. You stay there and I'll call people, I'll see if I can find out if he's with someone and then we'll see about what to do from there.” Robin says thoughtfully and then hangs up. Sanji puts his phone back on the coffee table and sighs. He hates this situation but Robin is a saint, she's looking for Zoro and she's not horribly murdered him for fighting with the man. 

When a knock on the door sounds Sanji almost kicks over his cold and half drunk mug of tea off of the coffee table in his haste to get to the door. He clips the armchair with his hip and stumbles over a book but he's at the door in a hot second and yanking it open. Only it's not Zoro there, it's Robin. 

“May I come in?” Robin asks with a tilt of her head. Sanji nods numbly and steps aside, he'd been so hoping that it would be Zoro. He shouldn't be disappointed to see a lady, much less one as lovely as Robin but he can't deny that he is. Right now he doesn't want anyone but Zoro to show up or call him.

“I called everyone that I can think of and have a number for that Zoro knows and no one has seen or heard from him. I hope you don't mind that I had to tell people a little about why I was asking. I tried to keep the details light though, but they all promised to call one of us if they heard from him.” Robin says, taking her handbag off of her shoulder and putting it on the armchair. 

She walks gracefully to the sofa and sits down, crossing her legs primly and patting the cushion beside her for Sanji to sit down, despite the fact that neither of them actually lives here. Sanji sits anyway. 

“I think you should tell me a little more about your fight. Zoro is an old friend of mine and I'd like to be able to help the both of you.” Robin says lightly. Sanji watches her carefully for a moment and remembers all the times that Zoro had told him that he suspects Robin of secretly being a mind reader. He knows that Robin does like him but at the same time he is distinctly aware that she is more Zoro's friend than his. Not that Sanji has many friends of his own, and none that he doesn't work with. God his social life is sad without Zoro and the people Zoro dragged along. 

“It's not as if you have anything else to do until Zoro returns or we hear news of him, is it?” Robin prompts him and Sanji understands that this is Robin asking nicely, though getting less nice by the minute. 

He feels unease roil in his gut. 

“I said and did a lot of things that I shouldn't have done.” Sanji says to the carpet instead of to Robin directly. 

“Could you be a little more specific?” Robin asks wryly. Sanji knew that he couldn't get away with that small an amount of detail in his explanation but he had really hoped that he could have. 

“I know that I shouldn't have done it, believe me Zoro told me as much. But I was talking to Marco and Ace about Zoro.” Sanji admits. He wants to point out that they started the conversation, not him. Zoro was right though, it doesn't matter who started it, he still shouldn't have done it. 

“And what did they say?” Robin asks him carefully. Sanji looks up and sees Robin watching him intensely, though her body language seems relaxed. He doesn't know how to read her and it makes him a little unnerved. 

“That Zoro might not be capable of romantic love.” he mumbles regretfully. 

“And I'm guessing that this bothered you. Zoro told me that you'd had a lot of relationships fail because people weren't as committed as you.” Robin concludes.

Zoro told her that? Sanji's jaw clicks shut from where it had fallen open in surprise. He has no right to be upset about Zoro sharing that information, not after what he did in talking to Ace and Marco about him. Besides, Zoro probably discussed his feelings about the two of them possibly dating with her. She'd been over today and Sanji has no doubt that she was behind Zoro asking him if they were dating or not. He actually probably has a lot to thank Robin for. 

“Yeah, and I stupidly demanded to know if it was true or not and then questioned his answer and was awful. I know, you don't need to tell me.” Sanji groans into his hands. Robin says nothing but when he looks up at her she is tight lipped and displeased. 

“He was worried about that you know. He asked my advice about you. He knew how he felt and it scared him, but he said that if it was going to be anyone that he would fall in love with it would be you. He doesn't do these things without thinking and he was far more worried about you than himself.” Robin says and her tone is sharp and unforgiving. Sanji leans forward again, feeling like he was just punched in the gut. He sobs, just once, but it hurts like throwing up and he's crying again. He fucked up, he fucked up SO badly. 

“Zoro wouldn't want me telling you all of this, I'm sure. But since I know how much this means to him I feel like I should. He's my friend and I look out for him.” Robin says pointedly and Sanji winces. He's a shit friend as well on top of all of this. 

“What do I do Robin?” Sanji asks in despair, looking at the beautiful and angry looking woman on the sofa next to him. 

“You should have a calm discussion about that with Zoro, without accusations. But I also don't think that there's much I could say to make you feel worse about it than you already seem to, so I won't try.” Robin says after a moment or two. Sanji's shoulders slump, that alone says a lot about Robin's disapproval. Robin's right he's not sure that he can regret what he said any more than he already does but somehow he keeps managing to feel worse about it. 

“What did Zoro say back to you?” she asks after a few long moments, referring again to their argument. 

Sanji's back stiffens as he remembers Zoro's painful words but he shakes his head at Robin.

“He was just arguing back, it was still because of me.” He replies morosely. Even so, the words still sting in his mind like vinegar on a cut. 

“It doesn't matter. What did he say?” Robin asks and again Sanji gets the feeling that this is a request that's not a request, it's just phrased that way for the sake of politeness. 

“He said that I was an asshole for not believing him, which I am. He said that my obsession with trying to work out how the other people that I'm in a relationship with me feel is the reason that they all fail. If I just took people at their word then I wouldn't... I don't know. He didn't say that I drive people away with it but it's probably true. Zoro and I were happy until I opened my big mouth because I couldn't just let things be.” Sanji answers brokenly, staring down at Zoro's carpet. He curls his toes against it and wishes that the floor would swallow him up.

The anger in him starts to resurface though, slowly like a bubble rising up through very deep water. 

“Zoro knew how much that'd hurt me, I've always felt like it was my fault, I told him that and he used it against me.” He says with a glare of anger at the floor. Even now the sting of it hurts like a barb through his chest, not just because Zoro is almost certainly right, but that he would choose to wound him with that. He'd sobbed his heart out to Zoro before when he confessed that and Zoro had turned it against him to hurt him back. 

He's hurt Zoro, he knows that he has. Zoro wouldn't have run away if he hadn't felt like he couldn't take it any more. He's entirely to blame for that, but none of it had been intentional on his part, he had just wanted to make things clear. All he had wanted to do was to make sure that he wasn't going to get fucked over again. Maybe Ace and Marco had poisoned his mind, making him worry about things that weren't real but Zoro ought to have heard him out. Right?

Fuck, he's just making excuses for himself but it still hurts so badly and Zoro did that on purpose.

“I shouldn't have pushed him, shit, I shouldn't have brought it up at all but he tried to throw me out rather than talk with me about it!” He adds angrily. 

“Zoro doesn't have much experience with this but he's not stupid, there's no excuse for that.” Robin says tersely and Sanji looks up to see her looking angry as well, only this time it's not at him. 

“Now I don't know what to feel.” Sanji sighs morosely, standing up and running his fingers through his hair. The guilt is coming back all over again but he suspects that he's going to be dragged between the two until Zoro talks to him again. 

“If you see him could you give him these back? Even if he never wants to talk to me again he should be able to get into his own home.” Sanji says, settling on numb again as the midpoint between anger and self hatred. He scoops up Zoro's phone, keys and wallet and hands them to Robin. 

“Bye Robin.” He mumbles, turning to the door. His hand is on the handle when Robin's voice calls out to him.

“Sanji, I'm your friend too.” 

He looks around at her and his heart clenches. She's clearly sad for them both and wants to help, but a big part of him feels like he doesn't deserve that. Still, he nods and opens the door, letting himself out. 

He doesn't really register the descent of the stairs in Zoro's building, or the ascent of his own. He shuts the door of his own flat behind him, doing his best to ignore the spot by his door where Zoro blew him. Instead he walks into his bedroom and falls face down on the bed. Fuck this day.


	19. Chapter 19

Daz hands are on him, moving him around, his voice telling him what to do. He doesn't want to think, not about anything, not about Sa- no. Daz has always been a genius when it comes to running Zoro's thoughts out of his head, hell that's half the reason that Daz was the guy that he called in the first place. 

“Clothes. Floor. Now, Zoro.” Daz says sharply, snapping his fingers and pointing down at the floor. 

Zoro sighs and peels off his sweat drenched clothes and drops them on the floor by his side.

“Get.” Daz snaps his fingers, though he's not even looking at Zoro now. Zoro doesn't move.

“Don't make me repeat myself, Zoro. Get in there and try not to brain yourself on the tiles when I'm gone.” Daz orders. He's leaning on the wall outside the bathroom with his hand pointing towards the shower. Zoro grunts and does as he's told, it's easier that way. He bats the shower curtain out of the way and steps under the shower spray. He doesn't bother doing anything with it to close it all the way behind him. Daz has seen him naked more times than Zoro cares to count and perhaps it doesn't matter anymore anyway. Does it? Maybe it does. Shit, this is exactly the kind of thing that he doesn't want to be thinking about right now. 

He presses his tired hands against the wall and lets his head drop forward, the spray of the shower beating down on the back of his neck and down his shoulders. He hears the metallic clink of his belt buckle scraping up off of the tiled floor and Daz's retreating footsteps. 

Zoro scrubs his hands through his hair, shower gel or maybe shampoo lathering up until he decides that it's enough and dips his head back under the pounding spray. His mind flicks to the drunken shower that he had when Sanji showed up and picked up the pieces of his life after it'd been shattered thanks to Daz. Hah, now he's doing the same thing in reverse. Only he's not drunk. He feels like he's drunk but that's almost certainly the dehydration. Not that Daz hasn't tried to do something about that. The man half choked him with a liter bottle of water the moment they got through the door. Apparently running for three hours straight without stopping or drinking and not wearing sensible running clothes isn't a good idea. 

Even as he tries to just focus on scrubbing himself down his mind still can't drop the memory of Sanji being there with him the last time that he was around Daz. Sanji had been so careful with him even though Zoro had all but wrecked himself and his place. Sanji had been his best friend and Zoro had gambled it all on something more and lost. 

He slaps the tap off and stalks out of the shower, knowing that if he stays there he's likely to punch the shower wall in anger. He'd been so stupid to think that he could make it work and seeing the whole thing crash and burn had hurt him, it'd made him lash out in ways that he'd always despaired about in other people. When the guys that he worked with at the school despaired about their relationships blowing up he'd always wondered why they got so emotional. If a relationship failed then surely it wasn't going to work, besides these people fell into dating other people all the time, so what was the big deal? But now with Sanji... well. Now it feels like his world is breaking down and maybe now he gets it. Maybe Sanji is right, maybe his is broken. Though Sanji had quickly denied that word it's clear as day that's what he meant. Sanji feels what normal people feel, Sanji understands how romance works, the guy practically breathes it. Sanji was right to point out that Zoro's got to his age only to start getting an idea of what love might be like. 

But... is that really right? It's not like he doesn't care about people. He loves Sanji, he does. He'd do anything for him, he thinks that he's amazing, even the parts of him (the many parts) that piss him off are still part of Sanji and he would never change them. Well okay, maybe he'd change Sanji's nagging about Zoro's formal clothes, but that's it. There is nothing wrong with buying work shirts at the supermarket damnit. Despite himself the smallest of smiles flickers onto his face, uneven and almost fighting not to fade off. The look on Sanji's face when he'd realised that ALL of his shirts were cheap was priceless. 

Maybe that will never happen any more. The small falls off of his face. 

“Drink.” Daz calls and a bottle bounces off of Zoro's head. 

“Fuck, Daz! Don't just throw things at me!” Zoro snaps, grabbing the energy drink up off of the floor. 

“You're lucky I'm just throwing drinks at you after you drag me out to find you in the next town dehydrated and looking like hell. Especially considering how we parted last time we met. I don't exactly owe you anything.” Daz argues and Zoro winces. Daz has a point. 

The larger man heaves a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a migraine. He turns and pulls open the large fitted wardrobe that dominates one wall of what was Daz and Paula's bedroom. The doors fold open and Zoro can't help but notice that one side of it is conspicuously empty. Another relationship that Zoro has ruined.

“I'm sorry about Paula.” Zoro says quietly. Daz pauses and then looks over his shoulder at Zoro.

“I know you didn't make me bring you here to tell me that.” the man says flatly. He turns around and throws clothes at Zoro. They're pajamas. Zoro gets why when he shucks his towel off and pulls up the bottoms of the pajamas, not only is Daz stupidly taller than him but it also means that his hips are so much bigger but thankfully the drawstring means that Zoro can tighten them so they won't just fall back down. The shirt ends up halfway down Zoro's thighs and the sleeves reach his elbows, he feels like a little kid in adult clothes. It's easy to forget how monstrously oversized Daz is when he's not around. 

“Drink that, you're probably still dehydrated. You can also tell me why you were that far away from your place in that bad shape and why you called me and not a cab. Even you don't get that lost by accident.” Daz says, taking the towel up off of the floor and hanging it over the bathroom door. Zoro settles on to Daz's bed with his legs folded and takes a drink from the bottle of blue sports drink, it's probably supposed to have a flavour of some kind of fruit but blue is probably more accurate. Sanji would probably look at the ingredient list and...

Sanji. 

“Sanji and I broke up. I think.” Zoro says to Daz's black bedsheets. 

“The fact that you started dating is news to me. Though I had a feeling that you might start. What happened?” Daz asks, sitting down opposite Zoro, his weight pitching the mattress slightly.

“Am I broken?” he blurts out, looking up at Daz. The other man stares at him in utter befuddlement at the confusing question. He should probably provide a little context. 

“Sanji's got this thing where all of his relationships go to shit because he falls for people too hard and too fast, or that's what he says. He says that people never love him as much as he loves them and then they bail on him, or cheat on him. So part of the reason I hadn't wanted to go anywhere with him was because I knew that he couldn't deal with that happening to him again.” He says, turning the bottle around and around in his hands. 

“I thought that I felt strong enough for him so that it wouldn't happen to him this time, that it would work and he wouldn't feel like that.” Zoro frowns as he continues talking. He starts to pick the label off of the bottle, starting at the top of the seam and working his way downwards until he has a about a fingertip width of it unstuck. 

“Did you change you mind then?” the other man asks neutrally. He doesn't sound judgmental or especially supportive. Daz has always been great at listening, he often doesn't offer much of an opinion one way or the other but still Zoro finds himself talking. He's always had the excuse of mind blowing sex lowering his inhibitions but that clearly isn't the case right now. Daz threw him in the shower the moment that he got in, they certainly haven't got in each others pants since Zoro walked through the door. 

“No I didn't.” He answers with a shake of his head.

“So you started dating him.” Daz guesses. 

“Yeah. Well, I thought so. Maybe.” Zoro frowns. Sanji said that he thought that they'd been dating too. So did that mean that they had been dating until then? But Sanji used the past tense even then before their argument got worse, so it was over now, right?

“You thought so? What does that mean?” Daz interrupts. 

“I didn't ask right away, things just... happened.” Zoro admits, feeling like that particular choice was dumber each time he explains it to someone. 

“I know, it was stupid not to ask first. But I did ask. I thought for sure that we were, I'd taken him on a date and we'd... we hadn't had sex yet but... yeah.” Zoro shrugs. It's odd to be weirded out at discussing his sex life with Daz, considering all of the things that Daz has done to his body and had Zoro do to him. It's not as if he's bashful talking about other people either, he and Daz were always completely honest when it came to discussing their other partners. Daz's testing rules had been so strict that Zoro had to talk about it. But talking about Sanji like this feels wrong. 

“So you asked and what happened?” Daz questions him. 

“He said that he thought that we were dating too.” Zoro answers and takes another long gulp of his drink before returning to picking at the label. 

“And?” Daz prompts, a little impatiently now. Zoro should probably get to the point. 

“But then he got all... I don't know. He kept asking me why I thought things mattered and if I was giving my own answers or if I was just repeating what I thought I should be saying. I didn't get why but then he told me that he wasn't sure if I could be in love with anyone ever, at all. He wanted to know if I was even capable of it.” Zoro says tightly and rips a strip of the label off of the bottle. It tears diagonally and he rips off another strip and another. 

“That... is a really shitty thing to say to someone. This is why you asked me if you're broken?” the other man says, his voice sounding terse and angry and Zoro realises that it's on his behalf. 

“He didn't say anything that wasn't true. I never got why people did relationships when they could do what I did, that way they got sex and people who care about them, they didn't have to be the same people. And maybe I'm just making myself feel what I think I should just because I care about Sanji and I think that he deserves that.” Zoro says with a scowl and peels off more of the label, dropping bits like confetti onto the bed sheet. 

“But I don't think that's what I'm doing. And I said that even if I didn't feel exactly like him then it shouldn't matter as long as I was happy and he was happy. But I don't know, I've never felt what I feel for Sanji before but it feels real, but maybe I'm just- hah. He said that I was confused. I tried to throw him out when he said that, it pissed me off so fucking much but he wouldn't leave and then the argument got nasty so I left I just... I just ran.” Zoro tails off, the label in shreds and his grip on the bottle crushing it slightly. 

Daz sighs softly and leans over, pulling the bottle out of Zoro's hands.

“Zoro look at me.” Daz says firmly, lifting Zoro's chin with his finger until Zoro is actually making eye contact with him. 

“Even if you are aromantic, which I think is what Sanji was getting at, you're not broken. Okay? That's important. You're not broken.” Daz says slowly.

“A romantic? I'm not- Sanji's the one obsessed with romance, not me.” he says with a frown and Daz looks actually pained by what he says. 

“Okay, I'm not going to go through sexual identities 101 with you, you can do your own research. All I'm saying is that romantic attraction is like all other things, it's a spectrum. Some people aren't interested in romance at all, it doesn't appeal to them, they don't get it, whatever. Some people are practically obsessed with it and fall in love with damn near everyone, like Sanji it seems.” Daz explains. 

“So you're saying that he's right, at least a little bit.” Zoro says quietly. Daz looks at him, full lips pinched as he huffs another breath through his nose in deliberation. 

“Look, I'm not here to give you relationship advice. Frankly I couldn't care less about that brat. I do care about you.” Daz says with a sigh and throws the bottle across the room so it lands in the bedroom bin perfectly. 

“You don't need to work out what you are, you don't need to put yourself in a box just because people tell you that it's easier to. If you feel like you're in love with him then you are, if you don't think so then you're not. It's no more complicated than knowing if you wanna fuck someone or not.” Daz explains with a shrug. 

“It feels pretty complicated.” Zoro mutters unhappily and runs his finger over the pattern in the bedspread. It probably says something about his state of mind that he's thinking of Sanji right now and not the time when Daz fucked him right here. He's playing over in his mind everything that he said to Sanji, the hurtful things that he said. He regrets it already but he did warn Sanji not to keep pushing him and Sanji started it. He groans and puts his head in his hands as he remembers his own words 'I don't give a shit who started it!'. 

“I said some shit that I shouldn't have. I wanted him to hurt too.” Zoro admits shamefully. 

“Not very mature Zoro, but I think we've all done that before. Come on, you need to eat too.” Daz says with a huff of laughter and pulls Zoro to his feet by the collar of his shirt. Zoro would usually object to Daz continuing to manhandle him but as before it's easier just to have someone else tell him what to do, his own decisions haven't been great lately after all. Daz steers him into a chair and leaves him there. 

Zoro stares at the wall unhappily. Does this mean that he and Sanji are broken up? If they are then will they still be friends? He's unsure on both counts and that thought alone is enough to make it feel like someone's yanked out all of his internal organs. He buckles over and rests his head on the table that his chair is tucked up against. Whether it's romantic or platonic Zoro needs Sanji. That ought to scare him but he's needed him for a long time. He can't lose him, he's not sure that he can cope without him. Losing everything that he has with Sanji, everything that he ever had, it hurts on the same level that Kuina falling into a coma did. 

“It hurts.” He says aloud as Daz returns with food. It's junk food mainly, some fruit in there but mostly junk. He knows that it's supposed to be getting his energy back, sugar and quick carbs, but even so Sanji would pitch a fit about it. 

“Yeah, it does.” Daz agrees and eats a cold slice of pie and pushes the other towards Zoro. It's chicken surprisingly, Zoro had expected something sweet but protein is good too. He misses Sanji, he misses his cooking. God, is he like those guys who just let their partners walk all over them because they're too weak to snap themselves out of something that isn't working?

“Do you know what would help this situation?” Daz asks with a grin.

“Alcohol.” Daz tells him before Zoro can answer. Zoro is fairly sure that this is a good answer, alcohol solves lots of problems.

“Do you think that we're over? That we're not dating now?” He asks, knocking back the glass of whiskey the moment that Daz finishes pouring it. 

“It sounds like it to me Zoro. Believe me, I'd know.” Daz answers, muttering the last bit bitterly. 

“I'm really sorry about her, I mean... not FOR her but for you. I know she meant a lot. Also vodka would be better, I don't wanna waste your whiskey.” Zoro says and stuffs half of an apple in his own mouth and bites into it. 

Daz returns with whiskey and says nothing about Zoro's apology. Daz fills up Zoro's glass with vodka this time and Zoro alternates between drinking and eating and the more he drinks the more he thinks of Sanji. He keeps going back and forth on the idea of him. On the one hand if he had never kissed him then he wouldn't be in this situation, he would just be harmlessly longing for his best friend. Maybe he could have got over it if he had ignored it, it might have taken months or even a year, maybe more. But... he could have got past it. Maybe. 

“What if he was right, or... almost an'... and if he is then maybe he was the only person I could love? What if... if he was it?” He blurts out as the thought occurs to him. Daz looks at him over the top of his glass of whiskey, he hadn't changed to vodka. Zoro realises that Daz had been watching him before that. 

“You can't pin all of your hopes on one person. It's a bad idea.” Daz tells him and glares at his glass. Zoro refills his own. Obviously Daz's mind is on his ex and not Zoro's problems, but that's perfectly reasonable. He supposes that having him there reminds Daz of his lost love. 

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to come here. 

He wants to ask Sanji to take him back but he's not sure that he should. He hurt Sanji deliberately and he's not better now than all of Sanji's jerk exes. Even if Sanji takes him back won't it most likely be because Sanji always falls into relationships that are bad for him? Zoro supposes that that now includes him. 

He never deserved the chance that Sanji gave him. He should have respected Sanji's wish to not have another shit relationship. He'd thought about it so hard and weighed it up and he'd figured that he could be good enough, but when he'd kissed Sanji that first time he wasn't thinking hard enough about what was good for Sanji, he was thinking about the fact that he wanted to be with Sanji so bad. He had wanted to wake up to him and hold him close and watch Sanji's things and his life move into Zoro's world. He never got any of that. 

“You're crying, you idiot.” Daz tells him, kicking Zoro in the ankle. Zoro stares up at him because that's just the kind of thing that Sanji would do. 

“I need to go see him.” Zoro says as the idea rolls through his mind. One way or another he needs to see Sanji and apologise. He stands up and the world spins. Zoro looks down at the bottle of vodka on the table, was that bottle so close to empty before? 

“I'm gonna call Robin.” He declares and moves towards the phone on the table by Daz's front door. 

Daz catches him by the arm and pulls him away, turning Zoro to face him as he does it. 

“Don't.” Daz says, looming over him. He's got that commanding voice on, the one that Zoro used to seek out just to get his brain to shut down. It'd be nice to not think right about now.

“No, I gotta. Let me go.” Zoro says, shaking his head and pulling at his arm. Stupid Daz with his stupid giant hands and strong grip. 

“You should stay here. We could have something, we did have something. Fuck all of that being in love with someone bullshit, you and I both know it just gets our hearts broken. Let's stick together and stay with a sure thing.” the man offers. 

“I'm not a quitter, no matter what I'm gonna... gonna talk to him.” he tells Daz, shaking his head and regretting it as it makes him woozy. 

“I drank too much.” Zoro mumbles and he really doesn't say that very often. 

Daz grits his teeth and snorts out an angry breath from his nose. Zoro thinks he looks a little bit like an angry bull. Daz opens his hand and Zoro nearly topples over with the sudden change. He goes towards the phone and starts dialing. The numbers go a little blurry so he closes one eye and continues. The first number isn't Robin's but when he tries again he gets her. 

“Robin, come'n pick me up. Please?” He says down the phone. 

“Zoro? Zoro are you drunk?” Robin asks him and he can hear the sound of her moving, of keys being collected. 

“Alcohol helps me think about things. Is Sanji there? I need... need to talk to him.” he asks hopefully. 

“It really doesn't help you think better and no, he's not. I'm almost at my car, where are you?” Robin questions him and he hears the distinctive beep of her car lock. 

“I'm at Daz's.” Zoro says, rubbing his face with his hand. Wow, the longer he's standing there the drunker he feels. Drunker? More drunk? What the fuck happened to his tolerance, Nami's never going to let him hear the end of this. 

“ZORO!” Robin shouts at him and Zoro jumps. 

“What?” He asks with a wince. Robin almost never shouts. 

“I was talking and you weren't... oh just give me ten minutes and I'll be there.” Robin says.

“Oh! And bring clothes!” Zoro blurts out but Robin has already hung up. 

Zoro puts the phone down and turns around to look at Daz. Daz looks angry.

“You owe me something at least.” Daz says darkly. His thick arms are crossed and he's closer than he was before. Zoro can smell the whiskey on him. 

Zoro considers his reply. 

“Fuck off.” He tells Daz succinctly. 

“You'll change your mind when he tells you to do that too.” Daz snaps at him and Zoro winces. He supposes he deserves some last painful barbs thrown at him today after his behavior. Daz turns and storms off. 

Zoro stumbles over to the sofa and falls face down on it. What is he going to say to Sanji? Sorry is a good start, but where to go from there? 

I'm sorry I said terrible things. I'm sorry I made it personal. I'm sorry that I can't talk to you properly. I'm sorry that I became another bad relationship for you. I'm sorry for everything.

He wants this all to go away and if the way that his head is thumping then it just might. 

“Zoro!” 

That's Robin's voice in his ear and her hand on his arm shaking him. 

“Robin... hi. That's quick.” He says and his voice sounds slightly slurred to his own ears. 

“Why is he this drunk? Why did you get him this drunk?” Robin demands coldly, looking around at Daz.

“He was dehydrated still. That's not my fault, he ran the whole way here. He said he was running for hours.” Daz responds. Robin's grip gets tighter on his arm. 

“S'okay, he gave me water too.” Zoro says, sitting up and wincing as everything spins. How does he feel like he's teetering between drunk and hung over already?

“Zoro... Zoro where are your clothes? Why are you wearing his?” Robin asks him, looking up into his eyes from where she's crouched on the floor. 

“Mnh, had a shower. Daz made me. Can we go?” he answers, standing up unsteadily. 

“Why- he made you-” Robin's voice stops. Suddenly she's facing the other way and staring at Daz. 

“No one will ever find your body when I'm done with you. You'll be in bits.” She tells Daz in her iciest voice. Zoro realises what she's saying when Daz starts to argue back with her. Zoro frowns, he should be listening.

“-said no anyway!” Daz snaps. 

“He's DRUNK! You shouldn't even have been asking, he can't consent to anything like this!” Robin... Robin is actually shouting. Aside from shouting to get people's attention or to be heard he's never heard her shout. 

“I'm fine, fine. Nothing happened, c'n we go?” he asks, leaning onto Robin's shoulder. Robin rubs one cool hand along the back of his neck and he's shepherded out of Daz's house and into Robin's car. He fails to duck enough and smacks his forehead against the roof a little. 

“Ow.” He says unhappily, rubbing his head. 

“You're a disaster. Why did you come here, do you know how stupid that was? Were you intending on sleeping with him Zoro? What about Sanji?” Robin says and her voice isn't angry anymore, it's just disappointed. That's far worse. 

“Oh shit, Sanji's gonna think that... I jus' wanted to be somewhere you wouldn't find me!” He says desperately. 

“Well done, I didn't think you'd be this stupid.” Robin says sourly and turns a corner. Zoro's head bumps against the glass. Fuck, his head hurts. 

“Are you sure nothing happened Zoro?” Robin asks. Zoro shuts his eyes. He can just... the car is making him a little dizzy is all... if he just closes his eyes then he won't have to see where they're going. That'll make it better. 

“Zoro?” 

Yeah... better.


End file.
